7ti 



I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.! 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE PLANET. 



THE PLANET; 



A SONG OF A DISTANT WORLD. 



BY / 



LARRY BEST. 

u ./ 



J V 




CAMBRIDGE: 

PRINTED AT. THE RIVEESIDE PRESS. 
1869. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction to Canto 1 1 

CANTO I. 

From Earth to Sky 3 

CANTO II. 
Starlight 27 

CANTO III. 
The Conspiracy .55 

CANTO IV. 
The Meeting 82 

CANTO V. 
Love's Triumph 118 

CANTO VI. 
Virtue's Sacrifice 141 



ARGUMENT OF THE POEM. 

The Poet, dissatisfied with the vanities of Earth, longs to dwell 
upon a favorite star which he conceives to be an abode of unsullied 
purity and bliss. The Muse comes to his relief, and he is translated 
thither. There he finds that Evil has preceded him, and that a ma- 
jority of the inhabitants have yielded to its influence, leaving but a 
remnant steadfast in their integrity. For the destruction of that rem- 
nant a plot is contrived by their enemies, the progress and result of 
which are recited. 



INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FIRST. 

Who does not know a visitor 

That comes to tempt the human soul, 
In the still hour of morning, or 

When evening calls its muster-roll, — 
Night's host of silver-mailed stars ? — 
Seating herself just out the bars 

Which hold the spirit in control; 
A restless, changing, busy sprite, 
Compound of shadow and of light ; 
And as she sits mysteriously, 
With dreamy, melancholy eye, 
Warbles a song in undertone, 
In accents which are all her own, 
And sweeter notes were never known, 
Wooing the soul to come and fly 

Away with her to other lands, 
Which, by her rapturous story, lie 

Beyond a wealth of golden strands, 
And underneath a summer sky. 
And when the enchantment has begun, 
When the charmed soul is wholly won, 
The tempter takes to sudden flight, 
And leaves her victim to the night, 
Or in the glare of deep daylight. 
1 



INTRODUCTION TO CANTO FIRST. 

I've been a victim to this sprite : 
Ah many, many, many a time 
Pve had the cunning tempter light 

Close by my heart and sing her rhyme, 
Until my soul all other things 
Had gladly given to have it wings, 
To follow in that Siren's wake 
To any clime her flight might take. 



CANTO FIRST. 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 

Within a lonesome, quiet vale, 

Where flows a gentle, babbling stream, — 
Which needs no naming in this tale, — 

I've led a life that is a dream ; 
A student's life — a life of thought, 
Which hath resolved itself to nought ; 
With books for friends, and books for foes, 
With comrades other none than those, 
And there and thus my life still flows. 
I have enough ; I have the mood, 
The silent thirst for solitude ; 
Each outw T ard type and inward sign 
To prove the hermit's passion mine. 

With some small gift of music's art, 
From the strange world enshrined apart, 
I hold the social chords in tune, 
Counting seclusion my best boon. 
When heavily the hours o'ergo, 
To keep the spirit's fount in flow, 



THE PLANET. 

I sing me songs, and as I sing, 
The sluggard Time takes golden wing ; 
For I have learned the secret springs 
Of harmony in common things. 

Few be the objects which surround 
But yield my touch some grateful sound, 
Hid in their hearts to flow along 
With the chance current of my song. 
The deadened tree, the flinty stone, 
Hold each some pleasant secret tone ; 
And oft in boyhood's days I took 
The reed from out the singing brook, 
And tuning to my pensive mind, 
Poured out my soul upon the wind. 

Though hermit poor, yet fancy not 
All uninviting is my lot : 
Boundless the store which I have got. 
Of mystic wealth possess I much ; 
Kingdoms I rear by fancy's touch ; 
Build castles in the land of dreams 
From gossamers and pure sunbeams ; 
Fashion new worlds from solitude, 
And people them from my own mood. 
The gems of night — the stars on high, 
And all the glories of the sky — 
Are mine; I use them as I list; 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 5 

None be that can my claim resist. 
My eye takes in their beauties all ; 
My fancy weighs each glittering ball, 
And freely my adventurous soul 
Doth with the planets soar and roll. 

When Evening wraps her cloak of shade 

Around the sleeping form of Earth, — 
Resplendent with the pearls o'erlaid 

In Heaven's blue depths that had their birth, 
Drawing my mantle closely round, 
I cast myself upon the ground. 
Then gazing from my grassy bed, 
The whole broad firmament overhead 
Becomes in the still night a plain 

Whereon my dreams have fullest play ; 
Where nothing draws a slackening rein 
On vagaries of busy brain, 

While fleeting on their pathless way. 
Seeming, while as they roam afar, 

To trace the chosen path of God, 
Who had gone forth and left a star 

Whitherso'er His foot had trod, 
My thoughts unchecked range wide and free, 
Immersing in immensity, 
Finding in every star a goal, 

A palace of refreshing light, 
In which may halt the wearied soul, 



THE PLANET. 

To draw new strength for further flight 
To stranger orb and dizzier height. 

In that calm hour my raptured ears 
Drink in the music of the spheres ; 
Their voices melt into my dream 
Like murmurs from a distant stream. 
Pale planets, moons, red comets, suns, 
And all the bright and glorious ones 
Which people the infinite space, 

Are chorus of as sweet a tone 
As I have dreamt the holy race, 
Who hold in light the brightest place, 

Sing around the Eternal Throne. 

Fairest of all the myriad spheres, 

O'er this dark world so pearly clear, — 

They seem a shower of angels' tears 
Falling to wash out sin-marks here, — 

The mellow orb of evening; beams 

Chief centre to my roving dreams. 

True handmaid to a changing queen, 

Bearing a train of silver sheen 

Along the star-way of the sky, 

She shines like soul of constancy. 

Here oft has dwelt my pensive eye, 

While hours have stolen muffled by ; 

My vision anchored to her light, 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 

I've pondered out full many a night, 
Wondering what might her tenants be, — 
Spirits of air, or such as we ; 
If to that far and shining ground 
Sin had besought and entrance found, 
And whether in the monster's lead 
The countless swarm of his own breed — 
Pride, Avarice, Blood, Ambition, Woe — 
Had swept the country as below. 

" By all that's pure and beauteous, No ! " 

My soul replied ; " a land so fair 

Can harbor no such dwellers there ; " 

And in the passing impulse strong, 

My lips have felt the heart-throbs throng, 

Like swarming bees, in eager press, 

To join the half-declared address : — 

" Sweet planet ! emblem of the hour 

Thy presence doth become so well ; 
O would it were in mortal's power 

To visit thee ; for I could dwell 
Eternally upon thy breast, 

Nor weary grow of life nor time ; 
There every hour would make more blest 

The holy influence of thy clime. 
Thou must be lovely, far more bright 

Thy skies, purer thy atmosphere, 



THE PLANET. 

As we approach the source of light, 

And fewer clouds bedim than here. 
If not of Heaven thyself a part, 
More near to it than we thou art, — 
One step-stone farther in the flight 
Which leads us up the eternal height, — 
God's stairway to the endless bright. 

" Thou must have pastures green, where flocks 
Can feed by never-failing brooks ; 

High towering mountains and dark rocks, 
Deep shadowy woods and quiet nooks ; 

And flowers must spangle o'er thy breast, 
Of every glorious tint and bloom, 

Where I could lay me down to rest, 
Breathing a nectar of perfume, 

And still the moments occupy 
In gazing on the glorious stars, 
When Night her banner of rich scars 

Flings from the battlement on high. 

" Worlds for the spirit's wings to soar 

With this dull form to thy bright sphere, 

O sweetest star ! but hope gives o'er, 
For I must live and perish here ; 

A child of time, a thing of clay, 
A worm bound to its native sod, 

To dream and pass a lingering day, 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 9 

Although in very soul a god. 
O why, why am I fashioned so? 

All eagle-thoughted without wings ; 

A shooting flame which heavenward springs, 
And dies to ashes in its glow ; 
Heart full of aspirations caged ; 
A soul like a young steed enraged 
At curb of bridle bit ; a vine 
With nought above round which to twine ; 
A child in all which makes the man ; 

A man in all which makes the child ; 
With powers encompassed to a span, 

And yet at things far off beguiled ; 
Feeble in stature to attain, 

Yet, therefore, stronger to aspire, 
As he who knows his love is vain 

Burns with a more consuming fire. 
Upon my soul a weight of clay 
Is set to press it down for aye ; 
While eyes, thoughts, heart, are fixed above, 

As if I strove in labored prayer, 
Or in the thrilling sense of love, 

Wishing thy fields my dwelling were, 
O loveliest vision of a star, 
Which still to mock me beams afar." 

Thus had I mused one summer night 
With fitful visions of the soul, 



10 THE PLANET. 

Rising by times to heaven's dim height, 

Sweeping her plains from pole to pole ; 
Then sinking back to self again, 
To thoughts of littleness and pain. 
The dew fell fast ; damp was my hair ; 
I shivered in the night's cold air ; 
My limbs were numbed and sore ; my eye 

Was fastened on its favorite flame ; 
My mind was so absorbed that I 

Marked not how fresh hours went and came, 
When on me fell a presence, such 

An influence as an angel sheds, 
As spirit hosts at midnight touch 

In vigils round our sleeping heads. 
I heard it not, I saw it not, 
My eyes knew but the one bright spot, 
Filling all space within their range ; 
And yet I felt a something strange 
Was near, as if a wing swept by. 
Uprising from my lethargy, 
I looked, and lo ! at hand a shape 

Shown dimly through the mist-pale air, 
Which* seemed her form with robe to drape. 

Her countenance, supremely fair, 
Was gazing on me from above 
With brow full of a placid love. 
Her w T ings, which gleamed like morning's gray, 
Were spread as if to haste away. 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 11 

" Rise, mortal, from thy dreams arise," 

The vision said. " I am thy Muse : 
'Tis I can lead thee to the skies, 

And point the way to higher views, 
Far from this world, which is the tomb 

That holds inurned thy soul's content ; 
Can cause thy barren soul to bloom 

Freed from its dark bewilderment, 
And give it rest in other spheres, 
Where thou may'st wipe away thy tears, 
And bask thee in thy full desire, 
Nor dream of other lands and higher. 
Come on, thy hand, for we to-night 
To yonder orb shall wing our flight." 

Around my hand I felt the twine 

Of the soft fingers of the sprite. 
A gentle traction upon mine, 

And out upon the placid night, 
With sweep of gliding motion we 
Set forth as sailors launch to sea. 
I felt the earth recede, and quick 

The winds swept from my lips my breath, 
As waters in their anger lick 

The decks, when ships go down in death. 
Away throughout the infinite 
The stars grew drunken to my sight : 
Parched were my lips ; pulsation fled ; 



12 THE PLANET. 

My dizzy brain weighed down like lead ; 
A chilly tremor seized my limbs, 
Such as he feels who vainly swims 
And struggles with the yielding wave, 
When every power is gone to save. 
There was no rest, nowhere to stand, 
Ten thousand miles from any land, — 
The only trust my pilot's hand. 
There was no light from either shore ; 
I looked not back, looked not before ; 
Could see and feel and hear no more ; 
Save now and then the rapid beat 
Of my companion's pinions fleet, 
As boldly rising to the sweep, 
We madly ploughed the great void deep. 
Thick darkness gathered o'er my eyes ; 

Dread silence reigned within my ears ; 
One sheet of blackness were the skies, 

Outblotted all their burning spheres. 
I lost all distance, time, and place, 
Drowned in the abyss of empty space. 
The heart within me to the core 

Knew neither cold, nor pain, nor heat ; 
The very grave could do no more : 

All was forgetfulness complete. 

A sense came stealing on at length, 
Yielding a faint renewing strength, 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 13 

An odor of sweet scent was fanned 

Into my lips and on my soul, 
Such as is wafted from the land 

When weary sailors near their goal, 
Waking fresh life, as summer showers 
Bring life and bloom to famished flowers. 
It minded me of the soft gale 

Which, round the love-haunts of my birth, 
Roved up and down the quiet vale 

Where was my home upon the earth, 
Wooing the flowers with amorous plays, 
Stealing the hearts from all the sprays 

That spotted o'er the narrow plain 
And sparkled up the hill-side brays : 

I dreamt that I was there again. 
In vain the soothing dream ; in vain 
My feet touched substance ; to my brain 
Came rushing back the former pain. 
Over my eyes spread swimming light ; 
I opened them and to my sight 
A land all strange sustained my feet. 
The very flowers were new, though sweet 
Their incense on my senses fell, 
Soothing as oil when w T ild waves swell. 
The rose was there, the violet, 

The butter-cup and jessamine, 

And here and there a clamb'ring vine 
Bore some few blooms which I had met 



14 THE PLANET. 

Upon the planet of my birth, 

Which seemed transplanted here from earth. 

But more, far more were of a hue 

And form to all my wanderings new. 

Of novel shapes and gorgeous dyes, 

Commingled in a myriad ways, 
Holding all tints of earth and skies, 

Blent of the night's and noontide's rays, 
They seemed parts of a thousand bows 

Fresh from the bosom of the shower, 
Torn into fragments to compose 

The various features of this bower. 
Rich vines were bending here and there, 

Loaded with clusters of ripe gems, 
And trees at intervals there were, 
Crowned some with fruits, a pulpy shower, 

Trembling to fall from off their stems ; 
And some, but bursting into flower, 
Made column, minaret, and tower. 

As from long sleep dissolved, I gazed 
Upon the changed scene around, 

Not less bewildered than, if raised 

Fresh from the hush of death, I'd found 
My feet upon the spirit ground. 

By habit's force my wandering eyes 

Upturned for counsel to the skies ; 

To those bright watchers, love-lights pure, 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 15 

Which I had known as friends before, — 
Earth might recede, but heaven was sure, — 

Only to be confounded more ; 
The very stars o'erhead, the few 
Which sparkled in the heavens were new. 

" Where, where," with swift impulse, I cried, 
Bethought of her who was my guide, — 
" Where hast thou led me ? On what land 
Do now my feet uncertain stand ? 
Unto what shore has swept thy wing 

To find such strangely gorgeous scene ? 
Is it the garden of a king ? 

Or is it realm of Faerie Queen ? 
And am I here, henceforth, to be 
Unto my own direction free ? 
Or shall I live some tyrant's slave ? 
Or is this spot beyond the grave ? " 

" Mortal," my comrade gently spake, 
" How often have I heard thee groan, 

As if thy very heart would break, 

For something which was yet unknown, 

And vexed for that ye found it not ; 
Hung'ring and thirsting for a clime 
Somewhere upon the bounds of time, 

Where thou could'st grasp a wider lot. 

The part immortal in thee strove 



16 THE PLANET. 

To tear itself from earth and clay, 
Until thy constant struggle drove 

All hope of peaceful rest away. 
Thy eyes turned to the heavens on high, 

And peered into the deep dim night, 
To see if there they might espy 

The object of their feigned delight. 
One star more lovely than the rest 
Allured thy vision to her breast : 
She, robed with all the wondrous light 

Which midnight adds to fancy's dream, 
Because the chosen land, the height 

Of aspiration, hope's extreme ; 
And ye became a worshipper, 
For lack of brighter thing, of her ; 
And worship grew erelong to be, 
In thy strange mood, idolatry. 
At her pale shrine ye bowed in awe, 

Made sacrifice of precious peace ; 
Your soul ye would have given to draw 
A smile from her still brow ; I saw 

How thy strange frenzy did increase ; 
As nightly, hour by hour, ye lay, 
Feeding thy soul upon her ray. 
I saw thy tears fall fast, and heard 

The voice of thy bewailing prayer 
Go out in language of despair, 
A sad lament in every word. 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 17 

By pity moved, I left the air, 

And sought thee out to lead thee there. 

What was last night a distant star, 

Off in the dim, cold heavens afar, 

Is now the land beneath thy feet ; 

Turn and partake the expected sweet." 

The morning's golden rays were throwing 

A mellow glory o'er the scene ; 
The flowers, whose tears all night were flowing 
Amid the darkness, now were glowing 

With radiant smiles in the warm sheen 
Reflected from the eastern sky, 
Where, spread in folds of deep'ning dye, 
The flaming banner of the dawn 
Came leading day's bright cohorts on. 
The balmiest breath was in the air ; 
Awakening life was everywhere ; 
Each sound foretold the day's turmoil : 
The bee went singing to his toil ; 
Birds glanced and sang from limb to limb, 
Making an universal hymn : 
So gay their plumage and so light 
And airy their impulsive flight, 

So soft their fall and quick their spring, 
My vision scarce could tell aright, 

If things of air or flowers a-wing. 



18 THE PLANET. 

" And this is mine ! all this is mine ! 

Thank Heaven ! " I cried, "and thanks be thine, 

Dear pilot to this land of bliss ; 

To whose kind hand I owe all this. 

Delicious scene ! O happy lot ! 

Heaven scarce could be a lovelier spot: 

And am I here to dwell alone, 

These sweets to taste with comrade none ? " 

" Hold, mortal," softly spake my guide, 
And leaning slightly poised she stood 
In eager, listening attitude, 
As if her quicker senses spied 
Some danger to our new abode. 
Awed by her anxious, warning mode, 
In hushed expectancy I gazed 
Into the tangled copse, which raised 
A barrier on each hand, and heard 
A low, soft murmur. Scarce a bird 
Could yield a gentler tone. The sound 
Nearer and nearer came, and 'round 
All moving things at once grew still, 
As if they felt a sudden thrill. 

While standing half o'ercome with fear, 
A-wondering in our mute surprise, 

The branches softly parted near, 
And a new vision met our eves. 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 19 

From where the nearest copse encroached 
Two maidens with slow steps approached. 
Shoulder to shoulder, half embraced 

They came. The arm of one was passed 

Round her companion's neck, who cast 
Her own about the other's waist, 
And with a hand each one displaced 
The branches hanging in their way, 
Whose blushing clusters of rich spray, 
As if enamored to caress 

The roses on the maidens' cheeks, — 
So beauty in its loveliness 

Companionship of beauty seeks, — 
No longer by the hand held fast, 
Returned and kissed them as they passed. 

Light flowing robes of simplest kind, 

Which best discover grace's mould, 
Cast loosely on with careless mind, 

Did their well-shapen forms infold, 
Leaving the feet and shoulders bare, 
Which were of whiteness wondrous fair. 
The pearly drops of morning dew — 

The only jewelry they wore — 
Clung to their arms, half left to view, 

And gemmed their flowing garments o'er, 
Nestled amid their glossy hair, 
Dancing and undulating there 



20 THE PLANET. 

Like stars that fringe a midnight cloud, 
Or sharply pierce its rifted shroud. 
These, touched by morning's quick'ning beams, 
Shot out a thousand dazzling gleams, 
Wreathing their wearers' brows in gems 
Richer than kingly diadems, 
Till luminous they seemed to be 
From rays of their own purity. 

It was a vision of rare grace, 
Perfect alike in form and face, 

The union of that gentle pair, 
Seen in that frame of flowers and vines, 
A picture of twin hearts and minds. 

A stranger's eye would deem they were 
The guardian genii of the place ; 
But of what tongue or of what race, 
Or from what clime beneath the sun 
The line of such as they begun, 
Or what the age, or what the name, 
Of spirit birth or mortal frame, 
Or whether to this spot they came 
Bright emanations from the flowers, 
Amid whose sweets they passed their hours, 
'The stranger's eye, though prone to dwell, 
Would try its skill in vain to tell. 

I stood absorbed in deep surprise, 
Having no power save in my eyes. 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 21 

The charm of an enchanted mood 
Held me firm rooted where I stood, 
As leisurely in converse sweet, 

The twain approached with footsteps grave, 
Nor marked the progress of their feet, 

Until our meeting garments gave 
The w r arning of intruders near ; 
When suddenly a look of fear 

Shot from their eyes at sight of me ; 
As rapidly to disappear, 

As they my spirit comrade see, 

Who seemed like an old friend to be. 

" Take not the stranger for a foe ; 

He comes in peace, his hand in mine ; 
His heart would taste, not overthrow 

The pleasures of this home of thine." 
The spirit spake, and by her w T ord 
And kindly visage reassured, 
The maids, as if they knew the mind 

Which brought us to that lovely shore, 
With smile of invitation kind, 

Turned back, and led the way before. 
In silence we their steps pursued 
Through garden sweet and fragrant wood. 

Thus led, we went not far before 
Our path came to an open door. 



22 THE PLANET. 

Within we saw a lowly bower, 
Whose structure spoke no skillful power ; 
Simply a frame of branches rude 
Collected from the neighboring wood, 
Clothed in a robe of climbing vines, 
Scarce dense enough to break the winds. 
Kneeling upon the silken turf, 

Which was the arbor's only floor, 
Was one whose hair was white as surf 

Lodged on the ocean's beaten shore. 
Upon whose brow, as on a rock 

Time-worn and furrowed by the brine, 
Were written lines of wasting shock 

In many a deeply graven line. 

Like one in attitude of prayer 

The ancient man bowed feebly there, 

Resting upon an upright staff 

Clasped tightly in his shriveled hands, 
His body bended forward half, 

As the impassioned pleader stands ; 
His head thrown back, his countenance 
Upturned and fixed as in a trance ; 
His eyes, as lost to present things, 

Seemed fastened on some distant view ; 
His lips moved as with hidden springs, 

But not a sound we heard came through. 
He seemed to' hold converse with one 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 23 

Invisible, whose listening ear 

Approached the speaker's lips so near 
As to take in the words, while none 

Besides the slightest voice could hear. 
And ever and anon a smile 

Broke o'er that withered face, to send 
The look of one who holds the while 

Communion sweet w 7 ith some dear friend. 

We paused in reverence and surprise ; 

The maidens knelt and veiled their eyes ; 

Mine own dwelt on that old man's mien, 

O'ermastered by a power unseen ; 

Nor passed their gaze away before 

The fervor of his mood was o'er. 

At length the light passed from his brow, 

His head declined upon his breast, 
And for a time he seemed to bow 

Like one who taketh peaceful rest ; 
Then rousing strove his feet to gain, 
With many signs of toil and pain, 
Quick to his aid the maidens sprang ; 

And helped him to his tottering feet, 
As eagerly their voices rang 

With words of protestation sweet. 
With welcoming smile the aged one met 

The proffers of their help and love ; 
His hands upon their brows he set, 



24 THE PLANET. 

And called a blessing from above. 
A hand still fixed on either head, 
Beholding us, he paused and said : 
" And who is he that comes ? I know 
Full well the attendant's form, but lo ! 
A stranger with her stands, whose frame 
No kinship in this land can claim. " 

Then stepped my comrade forth and spake : 
" The mortal tenant of a sphere 
That rolls in space afar from here, 
Possessed a soul that longed to break 
Away from its own clime, and take 
The spirit's wings to worlds afar, 
And live thenceforth upon a star. 
The fountain of this curious mood 

Sprang from the grievous fact that Sin, 
Attended by a ravenous brood, 

Had found his world and entered in, 
Embittering all the streams that flow ; 
Blighting the sweetest flowers that grow ; 
Till nought there is in all that land 
But feels the ruin of its hand. 
Long had this mortal mourned and sighed 
O'er cherished hopes that bloomed and died, 
Until his soul, in deep despair, 
Began to dream there w r as somewhere 
In Time's domain a spot of ground 



FROM EARTH TO SKY. 25 

Where peace and love secure were found. 

Deeming the place of his desire 

Was far removed from him, and higher, 

He came erelong to fix his eyes 

In constant search upon the skies. 

Amid the myriad orbs which bright 

Make up the jeweled crown of night, 

This goodly world burns thence so far, 

That to the eye it is a star, 

Floating on space's ample breast, 

But larger, fairer than the rest ; 

And in his heart he deemed that this 

Must be the fancied seat of bliss. 

To visit it, in his despair, 

Became an ever wasting prayer. 

I found him thus ; my heart was moved ; 

I grasped his hand like one I loved, 

And bore him on through shine and storm, 

And on through space that knows no form, 

Until arrived at this fair land : 

We wait thy counsel and command." 

"Thou hast done well;" the old man spake: 
" The stranger w T ho, with eager mind, 
Seeks in far orbs the good to find, 

Is welcome here, and for his sake 

We will invoke the tuneful strain, 

And call the past to view again. 



26 THE PLANET. 

Now lead me to my favorite seat 
Beneath the vines, where, cool and sweet, 
The roving winds can fan my brow 
With their soft silken wings, and thou, 
Spirit of song, take thee thy lyre, 

And aid me in the faltering strain ; — 
Alas ! I feel the fitful fire 

That kindled once in every vein, 
Now runneth fast unto its wane; — 
And we will give unto the ear 

Of him whose feet have come so far, 
Although in trembling notes, to hear 
What things of mystery there are 
Within the volume of a star." 



CANTO SECOND. 



STAKLIGHT. 

FIRST SISTER. 



" O who shall bind the golden chain, 
Which wearing years have cut in twain, 
And make its links secure again ? 

" O who the subtle harp restore, 

When ruthless winds have swept it o'er, 

And give it sweetness as before ? 

" Alas, alas ! and is there none 
To stay the pale destroying one, 
Ere ruin's work is wholly done ? 

" The voice we seek is still to-day ; 
The years have borne its strength away ; 
The singer's lips are cold as clay. 

" Say, Sister, say, O who will break 
The shackles which the winters make, 
And voices of the aged awake ? " 



28 THE PLANET. 

SECOND SISTER. 

" Joy, my Sister, for a helper, 
Sweetly missioned, is at hand ; 

Like a friend in hour of trouble 
Comes she at our hearts' command. 

Beautiful and glad Evangel, 
See the Muse beside us stand. 

" Nought there is in earth or heaven 
But has owned to Music's power. 

All the beautiful is given 

For its glory and its dower ; 

And it finds its store of sweetness 
Like the treasure of a flower. 

" Childhood's sunny hours are gladdened 

By the ripple of its song ; 
Youth obeys its stirring summons ; 

Manhood listens and grows strong. 
Why should age not feel its magic ? 

It cannot resist it long. 



& 



" Let us ask the sweet enchantress 
With us here the while to dwell ; 

Breathing on the old man's coldness 
With the gladness of her spell, 

That his lips may find their cunning, 
And the wondrous storv tell." 



STARLIGHT. 29 



BOTH SISTERS. 



11 Spirit of entrancing song, 
Round whose feet delighted throng 
High and lowly, old and young, 
Mistress of a charmed tongue : 



*t) v 



" Wheresoever comes thy gift, 
Sorceress or fairy swift; 
Blessings doth thy visit bring 
To the beggar, to the king. 

" We would have thee stay awhile ; 
Thou canst silence 'self beguile. 
We would have a story told 
From the treasure of the old. 

" Touch the trembling lips of age ; 
Open up fair memory's page ; 
Break oblivion's leaden chain ; 
Bring the past to view again." 



" Gentle Sisters, not too fondly 
Trust to gifts like mine ; 

Lest they live in promise only — 
Blossoms on the vine. 

" Know ye not there is another, 
Who must song inspire ? 



30 THE PLANET. 

I can call the wizard brother ; — 
Look ye to one higher. 

" Brooks and hills and golden evens, 
Storm and sun-dyed shower ; 

Glories of the earth and heavens — 
They give all my power. 

" In the bright and pleasant weather, 

In the fragrant May, 
I go forth with Hope, and gather 

For the poet's lay. 

" Sometimes at the mellow hour 

When the day has died, 
I am found in lover's bower, 

By the maiden's side. 

" Often in blythe boyhood's vision, 

When its little sphere 
Spreads away in fields Elysian, — 

I, the queen appear. 

" But it is when troubles thicken 

Like the snow in air ; 
When the heart is sorrow-stricken 

With deep pain and care; 



STARLIGHT. 31 

" That I speed with swiftest motion 

To the haunts of men. 
All, whatever be their station, 

Give me welcome then. 

" If for service I can render — 

I'm not great nor strong — 
Ye would ask me, here I tender 

What I have — a song. 

" The old man sits in the evening sun ; 

The shadows are stretching long and longer ; 
The autumn day is almost done, 

And the night wind cometh strong and 
stronger. 
A solemn power hath the silent hour ; 

The air is full of a subtle sorrow ; 
The morning's ray will renew the day, 

But to the old man comes no morrow. 

" His work is done, but the years roll on ; 

Their speed grows even fast and faster. 
The house below which he calls his own, 

Ah, soon w T ill it shelter some new master. 
Why stays he here, like a leaf grown sere, 

Of the vanished year a sad reminder ? 
That thing of joy for his heart's employ 

Hath the Past, in her going, left behind her ? 



32 THE PLANET. 

" One bliss remains, though the world may 
change, 

And the young may smile at the old man's 
dreaming ; 
His heart is green where all else is strange, 

While memory's lights are o'er it streaming. 
Back, back, to-night takes his soul its flight ; 

Back, back, to the days and things departed. 
The dead rise up, and with brimming cup 

He lives with the young and pleasant-hearted." 

THE OLD MAN'S SONG OF YOUTH. 

I am not old. While memory lives, 

Age cannot subjugate the soul : 
Life still some scenes of verdure gives 

O'er which Time's shadows vainly roll. 
The years come like love's messengers, 

Bearing their gifts of scented flowers ; 
For sheltered greeneries are hers 

Through all the winter's stormy hours ; 
And to the willing ear sweet melodies 
Breathe in the winds, leafless or green the trees. 

I am not old. I hear the notes 
Of children's laughter ringing free. 

Far o'er the dim-grown landscape floats 
How clear those dearest sounds to me ? 

With such reminders in my ears, 
To talk of age's power how vain ? 



STARLIGHT. 33 

I've stepped across the gulf of years ; 
I'm with the buttercups again. 
I wander up and down the fragrant meads, 
With hoop and ball, where'er my fancy leads. 

I am not old. In yonder bower — 

O bloom such blossoms there for aye — 
I plucked a rose, the fairest flower, 

I'm sure it was but yesterday : 
We met ; with many a solemn vow 

We pledged our souls to endless truth ; 
I feel the eager transport now 

With all the glow of kindling youth. 
Our hearts, they say, with gliding years grow 

cold ; 
If this be so, indeed I am not old. 

I am not old. The middle day 

Sent forth its summons to the strong ; 
The harvest white ungathered lay ; 

See yonder brawny reapers throng ; 
I'll seize again the gleaming blade ; 

I'll hurry forth amid the sheaves ; 
I cannot linger in the shade, 

While manhood's muscle strikes and cleaves. 
Through all the land the harvest calls again : 
Do you not hear the reapers' cheery strain ? 



34 THE PLANET. 

I am not old. Bring forth, I say, 

My gayly fashioned scarf and gown ; 
Bring forth my steed, my gallant gray, 

With which I rode the swift stag down ; 
Bring forth my horn, the hunting horn, — 

Oft has it woke the sleeping dells ; 
We'll hasten with the opening morn 
To scale once more the rugged fells ; 
The cup bring forth, my beaker foaming white : 
I'm with my friends, my earliest friends, to-night. 

The. vine is near, whose leaves o'erhead 
A shadow like a carpet spread ; 

An easy seat beneath it stands ; 
And hither is the old man led 

By tender, loving maidens'* hands. 
The tuneful spirit, lyre in hand, 
With reverence near him takes her stand ; 
The chord she strikes, and faint and low 
The prelude's softer numbers flow. 
Such strains are they as touch the heart, 
And make the tears unbidden start. 
Sounding the cares of weary years, 
When manhood's vigor disappears, 
And hopes of youthful days are fled, 
They swell like sighs o'er raptures dead. 
Moved by such sounds, like one at rest, 
The old man's head sinks on his breast ; 



STARLIGHT. 35 

His eyes are shut, his frame is bent, 

As if the fires within were spent. 

But when the strains, so sad at first, 

Into more cheerful measures burst ; 

When joys of childhood's sunny hours, 

When fields made bright by smiling flowers, 

When youthful dreams which love has fired, 

When manhood's works by Heaven inspired, 

Become the themes which move the soul, 

And bid the bolder numbers roll, 

His head uprises, life returns, 

And in his eyes fresh ardor burns. 

His limbs grow strong, and stern, and grand 

Becomes the expression of his mien : 
Slowly with outstretched trembling hand 

He points as to some far-off scene, 
While his whole countenance ablaze 
Tells how absorbing is his gaze. 

" How fair ; how brightly, sweetly fair ; " 
Breaks from his pallid, trembling lips ; 

"The beautiful is everywhere, 
No cloud its softness to eclipse : 

Lovely, thrice lovely is the scene ; 

Heaven bends above it all serene ; 

Light rules the day, and holy Peace 
Glides like a river through the land, 

Whose mountain brooklets never cease ; 



36 THE PLANET. 

And by the crystal waters stand 
Deep fragrant groves of blossoming trees, 

All jubilant with birds and bees. 
Beneath their ample, grateful shade 

The people come and rest at ease, 
With none to make them there afraid. 
Those forms beloved, see how they move 

Across the sweet fields, hand in hand ; 
With gladsome melody they prove 

Their tireless love ; ah, now they stand 
And beckon me. Why do I stay ? 
Restrain me not; I must away. 

"Ah, I forget; I do but dream: 

The past comes back, and it does seem 

More like to life than things that be, — 

So great the power of memory ; 

Marvel ye may what moves me so, 

Now when life's fires have burned so low, 

That its white ashes hide the glow 

Upon the broken shrine — then know 

The scene I saw was real, though faint 

The power time leaves its lights to paint. 

" There was a time when all this land 

Knew naught but Heaven's approving smile, 

Untouched by the destroying hand 

Which came with the first breath of guile ; 



STARLIGHT. 37 

When love through all its borders reigned, 
And joy held revel unrestrained. 
Ah, then to worlds that roll afar 
It well might seem a lustrous star, 
Fairest of all the sisterhood 
By Night through countless ages wooed, 
Clad in her robe of purest sheen, 
Companion meet for heaven's fair queen. 

" 'Twas in my youthful days, for O 

The time I sketch was long ago. 

These limbs, which tremble now with years, 

Were then as strong as oaken spears; 

And these sweet maids who now upbear 

My hands, are generations three, 
Descended from the fountain where 

Their line has known its source in me. 

" Aster, the king, pronounced The Good, — 

So well his heart was understood, — 

Then reigned the peaceful country o'er, 

As his own father had before, 

And his ere him, for so it ran 

From the first hour the race be^an. 

By Heaven decreed to fill the throne, 

By Heaven's decrees he judged alone. 

A father's rule, more than a king's, 

Made subject hearts free offerings. 



38 THE PLANET. 

Love was the sceptre of his sway ; 
And love was easy to obey. 

" I was the sovereign's eldest son, 
And by established laws the one 
Ordained to fill his royal place, 
When he had run his destined race ; 
And hence was nearest to his heart, 
Bearing with me the greater part 
Of his delight, though other sons 
Were his, and fair and noble ones. 

" The next in years, the young Amar, 
Was rare and brilliant as a star ; 
Possessed of beauty so intense, 
It perfect seemed in every sense ; 
With more, perhaps, of woman's grace, 
■ Than oft was seen with manly face. 
There was that in his languid look 
Which of a weaker form partook : 
His ample brow was smooth and fair, 
And softly silken was his hair; 
His eye so mild, it seemed to sleep 
Within a cavern cool and deep ; 
And you might read in every line 
Expression almost feminine. 
And yet there was what fire proclaimed, 
Which roused, his placid brow had shamed, • 



STARLIGHT. 39 

The impress strong of stubborn will 
Concealed beneath the surface still ; 
In soft disguise reposing there 
Like crouching beast within its lair. 
Calm was his mien as summer skies, 

Or like the ocean's breast asleep, 
Where in an hour dark storms may rise, 

And tempests in their fury sw r eep. 
The stealthy thought his movements spake, 

The sinking glance that met your gaze, 
The blushes following in its wake, 

Which set his soft pale cheeks ablaze, 

While they awoke profound amaze 
That so much beauty was combined 
To grace one form, left on the mind ' 

And apprehension undefined. 

" Strange was the youth, and strange the mood 

That held the mastery o'er his breast ; 
In silence he would stand and brood 

For hour on hour, nor tell what pressed 
Upon his heart. Even in the days 
Of boyhood's thoughtlessness, his ways 
Were mystery. In children's plays 
He bore no part ; but far away 
Was wont among the hills to stray, 
And hide himself from human gaze. 



V 



40 THE PLANET. 

" As years sped on, and he arose 

Perfect in every outward part, 
The sullen spirit seemed to close 

More strong and sternly round his heart. 
With his own race no sympathy 
And little fellowship had he. 
It was his joy to leave behind 
Each trace and member of his kind, 
And walk in paths of solitude, 
Where few would dare their steps intrude ; 
To climb the mountain's rugged steep, 
Its yawning chasms overleap, 
And bathe him in the foaming tide 
Which rushed in thunder down its side. 
And when the storm came on, he stood 

Above the awful precipice, 
As if the fiery bolts were food 

That filled his thirsting soul with bliss. 
And gifted well was he in form 
To brave the thunder and the storm. 
As active as the mountain deer, 
A stranger to the sense of fear, 
He little cared for toil or strife, 
He little cared for risk of life, 
And buoyant energy could keep 
With smallest part of food or sleep. 
Often beneath the wintry sky 
He walked until the night went by, 



STARLIGHT. 41 

Alone it seemed to mortal eye ; 

But those who passed him on their way, 

With trembling lips were wont to say 

They heard strange voices 'mid the blast, 

As if at midnight's hour there passed 

An interchange of word for word, 

In which the storm-fiend's voice was heard. 

" But there were times his heart gave way, 

As night recedes before the day. 

From out the grape with curious skill 

He learned the spirit to distill; 

And when he quaffed the crimson tide 

His silent heart would open wide, 

And thence would flow a stream of wit 

Which bore away all hearts with it. 

His laugh rang loudest, and his eye 

Burned with the glance of joyance high. 

His soul freed from its bondage then 

Besought companionship of men ; 

And none in all the land there was 

Whose words called out so loud applause, 

Nor to his side so many drew, 

Nor turned away from thence so few, 

Whose hearts did not become his prey, 

And gladly own his fickle sway. 

" But me, even in the wildest burst 
That broke by times his stern reserve, 



42 THE PLANET. 

He shunned like one that was accursed, 

And his whole soul he seemed to nerve 
Against each art by which I strove 
To draw him to a brother's love. 
And I have marked, when to the breast 
Of my aged parent I was pressed, 
And in his transport he would spread 
His hands in blessing o'er my head, 
And all around would gladly share 
A parent's joy, and seek to bear 
Due honor to the favored one 
Who was the monarch's first-born son, — 
jjfe, too, would smile, e'en with the rest, 
And words of love his lips expressed ; 
But with his smile came e'er a glance, 
Which pierced my spirit like a lance, 
And in his words there was a tone, — 
And in his words it dwelt alone, — 
Which filled me with a strange unrest 
I could not drive from out my breast. 

" If you will step to yonder line 

Which bounds the growth of flower and vine, 

And thence cast o'er the scene your eye, 

Your gaze upon a plain will lie 

Encompassed only by the sky. 

Away, aw T ay, on every hand 



STARLIGHT. 43 

Extends the growing reach of land. 
Hills, mountains, valleys, waters blue, 
Commingle in the common view, 
Making a woof of light and shade 
In curious interchain arrayed ; 
And fairer scene is now r here given 
Beneath the bended arch of heaven. 
But when your weary eye draws near, 

And seeks the space close to your feet, 
Ye will start back with sudden fear, 

Nor check at once your quick retreat, 
For down a thousand steps or more, 
Your dizzy glance will sink before 
It rests upon the solid shore. 

" Now r , for the first, ye will descry 
The little space we occupy 
Rests like an islet in the sky. 
Upon a mountain's airy crest 
This quiet spot, like eagle's nest, 
Is perched aloft, far o'er the plain 
Which spreads into the broad domain ; 
And this lone site on every side ♦ 
By nature's care is fortified 
With precipice and buttress high 
Which mountain goat in vain might try. 
Tall cliffs ranged round, of massive form, 
Their brows all whitened bv the storm, 



44 THE PLANET. 

Their sides deep-scarred and thunder-riven, 
Like warriors bruised by time and blow 
In bout and battle's overthrow, 

But resolute and still undriven, 

The grounds above them and below 

Keep separate as earth and heaven. 

" But in the days of which I speak, 
Not thus the dwellers of the plain 
And they who held this mountain's peak 

Were separate and dwelt in twain. 
A single narrow path was round 
The mountain's rugged volume wound, 
Hedged in by rocks that grimly frowned, 
By which the traveller could trace 
His steps from summit to the base. 

" Here was the sovereign's favorite seat, 

High in this air-embraced retreat. 

This spot, far back as memory, 

Had sacred been to royalty ; 

And here by times were wont to meet 

The children of the aged king, 
To sit for counsel at his feet, 

Where all their hearts did warmly cling, 
Drinking the words his lips distilled, 
Alike with love and wisdom filled. 
O fairest days ! when from the spring 



STARLIGHT. 45 

Of bliss supreme we quaffed the cup ; 
When both a parent and a king 

Held in himself love's mirror up, 
And we could read in lines of lio-ht 
The living words of highest right. 
A circle perfect in each link, 

With such a centre to our hearts, 
Ah, then how little did we think 

It could be rent in adverse parts, 
And aught but joy could find a seat 
Within that calm, that blest retreat. 

" Now had our Father King grown old ; 

The years weighed heavy on his limbs ; 
The season when the blood runs cold, 

When passion flies and vision dims, 
Had come to him, and cares of state 
Sat on his brow with grievous weight. 
And I, by fact of birth, the one 
Decreed, when his career was done, 
To occupy the regal seat, 
Had reached the years when it was meet 
That I should follow love's commands, 
And take the labor from his hands. 

" Upon a day the summons gave, 

He caused the order to be known, 
That all within the realm should leave 



46 THE PLANET. 

Their homes and gather to the throne, 
The sovereign's blessing to receive, 
And pledge their hearts and loyalty 
To him who was their king to be. 

" Arrived the day which was to place 

The ruling sceptre in my hand ; 
No distant haunt upon the face 

Of all the broad extended land, 
But joined its dwellers to the throng 
That came with gladsome shout and song 

To welcome to the royal seat 
The prince to whom it did belong, 

And lay their homage at his feet. 

" Joy ruled the hour ; the shout arose ; 

The voice of greeting filled the air ; 
Song went and came as water flows, 

And pleasantry was everywhere ; 
But none in all that living sea, 
Which tossed and surged in revelry, 
So radiant rose upon the scene, 
Nor showed such joyance in his mien, 
Nor bore his interest so far, 
As that strange, willful one, Amar. 
Where'er the loudest swelled the song, 
There Amar was amid the throng ; 
Where'er the laugh gave note of glee, 



STARLIGHT. 47 

The ruling spirit there was he. 
With open' hand and smiling brow, 
He made his progress like the prow 
Of some swift bark, whose urgent might 
Spreads round its sides a foam of light. 
And when he passed, the multitude 
Like eager waves his course pursued. 
A smile was ever in his eye, 

A welcome ever on his lips ; 
From place to place he seemed to fly 

Like busy bee, which lightly sips 
A little from each fragrant flower, 
And so salutes the entire bower. 

" A banquet on the plain was spread, 

By bounty of the royal hand, 
Beneath the mountain's shady head, 

Where all the riches of the land 
In free munificence were poured, 
Savory and sweet upon the board. 
Amar seemed everywhere to be, 

Spreading the pleasures of the feast ; 
Forgetting self, his hands were free 

To all, from greatest to the least. 
With ready zeal he taught the art 
By which he crushed the grape's rich heart, 
And caught its spirit in the bowl ; 
And soon through all the assembly stole 



48 THE PLANET. 

A strange confusion and a fire, 
Which rose each moment strong and higher, 
Until it scarcely knew control. 

" The throne of royalty the king 
Orders the guards attendant bring, 
And set it in commanding place 
Beside the mountain's shadowed base ; 
That all who stand upon the plain 
May look upon his face again. 
And there, once more, the royal seat 
The sovereign fills, while at his feet 
His subjects gather, a broad sea 
Of faces gazing reverently. 
Hushed is the tumult and the song, 
And for the time that giddy throng 
Pause in their revels and stand still ; 
And through their souls a solemn thrill 
Of sadness runs, as their eyes fall 
On one so well beloved of all. 

" Before my father's face I knelt, 

A.nd bowed my head unto the throne, 
Expressive of the love I felt ; 

Nor knelt and wept I there alone : 
Around me in their ardor thronged 
All who unto his house belonged, 
Seeking the reverenced one to greet 



STARLIGHT. 49 

And drop their tears upon his feet. 
First at my side, as first in blood 
And right of favor, Amar stood, 
More beautiful than e'er before, 

In stern and lofty attitude ; 
For now, again, his visage wore 

The olden stamp of his strange mood. 
In silent scorn, sullen and hio-h 

Above the mass of bended heads, 

Shedding the tears affection sheds, 
Uprose his brow, his freezing eye 
Gazing upon the scene below 
As on some idle, foolish show. 

" With trembling, outstretched hand, and tears 

Marking their channels down his cheeks, 
A parting counsel to the ears 

Of those he loved the monarch speaks. 
Then taking from his brow the crown 

Worn by a race of kingly dead, 
Which sire to son had handed down, 

He holds it o'er my bended head, 
Shaking within his feeble clasp, 
When Amar, with impetuous grasp, 
Snatches away the glittering prize, 
And in the presence of all eyes 
Holds it aloft and high. Surprise 
Seizes the multitude. Aghast 



50 THE PLANET. 

They stand and look, hushed and held fast 

By the usurper's flashing eye, 

As if bewitched : when bursts the cry, — 

' Amar, Amar shall be our king ! ' 

And louder does it swell and ring, — 

4 Amar, Amar shall be our king ! ' 

And breaking from its nerveless state, 

As water, when the tempest's wing 
First strikes it, seems to hesitate, 

Then forward bounds with sudden spring, 
And rushes reckless on its way, 
Dashing all things in its mad play ; 
With senseless haste the multitude 
Upheaves and rolls its howling flood, 
Crushing and struggling to o'erpass, 
One wild and frenzy-blinded mass, 
Its voices in mad tumult swell, 
Where fiery shout and angry yell, 
And mingled plea, and curse, and wail, 
Rise like the hootings of the gale, 
When the strong winds proclaim their wrath ; 
And Amar's name inspires each breath. 

" O'erborne in the first shock, the king 
Fell to the earth in helpless swoon, 

Oblivious to everything 

That told of threatened danger, soon 

Beneath the surging feet to lie, 



STARLIGHT. §\ 

Trampled and crushed to dust, when I 

To his relief awakening flew : 

Clasped him in my embrace, and through 

The mob that roared like beasts of prey, 

With sudden strength, compelled my way. 

Quick to the mountain path I ran, 

And up its steps my flight began. 

With fearful energy I strove, 

Supported by a matchless love, — 
My precious burden in my arms, 

Unconscious still to all alarms. 
On, on, still on the load I bore, 
While from below pursued the roar 
Of vengeance-cheated men, their cry, 
With Amar's name, still swelling high, 
Mingled with threatenings fierce 'gainst those 
Who Amar's purpose might oppose. 

"The giddy summit reached at length, 
Upon the perilous edge the strength, 
So far sustained, left me to sink : 
Prostrate I fell upon the brink. 
The light of day grew dim, the spot 

Was shadowed by a falling cloud ; 
The air came violent and hot, 

And pealing thunders, sharp and loud, 
Broke o'er my head, as if man's strife 
Had loosed the elements, and rife 



52 THE PLANET. 

With fury set them on the world, 
With all their missiles to be hurled. 
The earth itself, the solid ground, 

Was shaken in the general shock ; 
The mountain's form, all tempest-crowned, 

Began throughout its bulk to rock, 
As if it felt an earthquake's sway ; 

When suddenly there came a sound, 
So loud, so full of strange dismay, 

It seemed all thunders to compound, 

Shaking the universe profound. 
And when it sank, its dying notes 
Returned, like anger from the throats 

Of lions cheated of their prey, 
In one long-pealed, tumultuous roar, 

Amid whose din my mind gave way : 
Sensation fled — I knew no more. 

" When I awoke, it w T as to gaze 
Beneath me with a new amaze. 
Looking to trace the narrow road 
Up which I struggled with my load, 
That path, stripped from the mountain's face 
A broken mass — lay at its base, 
And I, a prisoner on this height, 

No more could reach the plain below ; 
The land far-reaching in my sight, 

Never again my feet should know. 



STARLIGHT. 53 

Betwixt me and my recent foes 
An everlasting wall arose. 

" The storm which shook the land was gone ; 

A smiling calmness had come on ; 

Back came the flood of memory ; 

And O my father ! where was he ? 

He was not by my side, nowhere 

Could I behold his form. Despair 

-Began to fill my soul, when high 

Above I heard a voice : my eye 

Turned to the welcome sound, and there 

A vision saw most strangely fair. 

" Aloft in air a winged band, 

Their garments shining as the day, — 
Tenants of higher, fairer land, 

Easy it was to see were they. 
Their wings were plumed with rays of light, 

Their brows disclosed a thousand charms; 
And in their midst, O joyous sight, 

My father's form borne in their arms. 
Refulgent is the crown which now 
Adorns the old man's shining brow, 
And radiant is his face to see, 
As falls his loving eyes on me. 
Upon my knees with awe o'ercome, 
I could but sink, confused and dumb, 



54 THE PLANET. 

And gaze on him with outstretched hands, 
While he unloosed the golden bands 
Which held the kingly robe he wore, 
Leaving it free in air to soar. 
Fluttering adown the breezy tide, 
It settled softly by my side. 

" Away into dim space at last, 
Slowly the glittering pageant passed. 
The forms grew faint, and one by one 
Into a golden mass they run. 
This, moving on, by slow degree 

Mixed with the splendors of the day 

Its softer hue, till far away 
Into the blue ethereal sea 
It sank, and all was lost to me." 

The light fled from the speaker's eye ; 

His head sank slowly on his breast ; 
His frame grew lax, and peacefully 

The old man found his needed rest. 



CANTO THIRD. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 

FIRST SISTER. 

" O, my sister, how confounding 
Is the riddle which we see ? 

Shadows everywhere surrounding 
With a veil of mystery. 

" There is sorrow, there is gladness ; 

There is evil, there is good; 
And the hand which mingles sadness, 

Giveth us our daily food. 

" All our being seems a juggle 

Most fantastically planned : 
Love and hate wage constant struggle ; 

Hope and fear walk hand in hand. 

" There is folly with the wisest ; 
There is false beside the true : 



56 THE PLANET. 

Life, with all our loves, comprises 
But the change of old for new. 

" Time expands in crooked mazes, 
Looking to a hidden shore. 

Whosoe'er the longest gazes 
Only wonders more and more. 

" Blameless all in the beginning, 
Face to face we stand with Death : 

From perfection into sinning 
Is the measure of a breath. 

" God is good ; O who can question ? 

Proof we have within, without ; 
Crush, O crush the first suggestion 

Of the soul-perplexing doubt. 
« 
" Darkly, blindly, on we travel 

Through the clouded valley here ; 
Who the riddle shall unravel ? 

Who shall make the marvel clear?" 

SECOND SISTER. 

" What we want is a brave leader 
In this realm of doubt and shade ; 

One who, like an earnest pleader, 
Is not of the light afraid. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 57 

"Let us ask the Muse immortal, 

Standing sweetly in the way, 
That she ope the mystic portal, 

Letting in the golden day. 

" Poetry is inspiration ; 

Its domain is everywhere ; 
Sweeps its vision o'er creation, 

As an eagle cleaves the air. 

"With the future it is present; 

Backward to the past it goes ; 
Nought is sorrowful or pleasant 

But the secret cause it knows. 

" Both the outer and the inner 

Lie before its open gaze ; 
With the ancient a beginner, 

It will live through all the days. 

" Hear our serious petition, 

Spirit of entrancing song ; 
For thy counsel our condition 

Makes us greatly, sadly long. 

" Wilt thou be our guide consoling,- 

Going gently on before ; 
Till we meet the day inrolling 

Like the waves upon the shore ? " 



58 THE PLANET. 



" Who stands within a valley deep, 
And gazes up the mountain steep, 
With frowning cliff and forest crowned, 
Knows little of the land beyond. 

" Within the narrow valley here, 
With mountains darkly rising near, 
And clouds o'erhead to break the day, 
How insufficient your survey ! 

" If to the summit you could soar, 
And thence would view the country o'er, - 
See hills and plains expanding far, 
You would behold how fair all are. 

"In the broad view where good and ill 
Make up the scene like vale and hill, 
The whole they only comprehend 
Who from above can see the end. 

" How idle, with your feeble span, 
Judgment to pass upon the plan 
Of Him who, making land and flood, 
Looked on his work and called it good. 

" Look not to means, but to their ends ; 
Much oft on slightest things depends ; 



THE CONSPIRACY. 59 

How seeming ill resulteth well, 
The simple tale I sing will tell." 

THE FLOWER AND ITS HELPER. 

A little flower within its bower 

Was dying at mid-day ; 
Its heart was melting 'neath the power 

Of noon's impassioned ray. 

At a distance far reaching thence 

Gushed forth a little spring, 
Which gave the light its feeble rill, — 

An humble offering. 

Gayly that rill danced on, until 

A drop of truant mind, 
Which wandered from its brother pearls, 

Was lost and left behind. 

On the lost one, the shining sun 

In pity looked from high, 
And sent a tiny sunbeam down 

To bear it to the sky. 

Thereon a cloud, of fleecy shroud, 

Received it to its breast, 
And gentle winds that swept along 

Cradled it there to rest. 



60 THE PLANET. 

Thus over wood and over flood 
The cloud swept hour by hour ; 

Till weary with the load it bore, 
It dropped it on the flower. 

The flower relieved, looked up and lived, 

And gladdened in the sun ; 
But still that spring pours on its rill, 

Nor dreams what it has done. 



" Behold, behold, our father wakes, 

His lethargy is past ; 
The sounding of our voices breaks 

The spell which sleep has cast. 

" Our tongues be still, our hearts draw near, 

Let age its story tell ; 
Glad are our eager ears to hear 

What further things befell." 



" The banquet calls, and once again 
The people gather to the plain. 
Like rivers from a thousand springs, 
The land its teeming increase brings. 
Here all the swollen currents pour, 
Till like a troubled sea that host, 
By counter-minds conflicting tost, 



THE CONSPIRACY. 61 

Sends up a hoarse continuous roar. 

A reckless joy runs through the throng, 

For wine is master of the hour ; 
Commingled shout, and laugh, and song, 

Give proof of its despotic power. 
A voice one moment sharply rings, 
As some familiar air it sings ; 
Again in chorus, lusty notes 
Are bellowed from a hundred throats, 
To sink away in cheers immersed, 
When rollicking applauses burst 
Into the music's doubtful strain, 
Like thunder peals 'mid falling rain. 

" A circle of boon friends, aside 

A little from the general tide, 

Have cast themselves upon the ground, 

While cups and tankards scattered round 

Proclaim what task employs their powers, 

And o'er them how bespeed the hours. 

To boisterous mirth their hearts incline ; 

Old jokes, fresh sharpened by the wine, 

Pass current for the soul of wit, 

And laughter greets each fancied hit. 

Again, as sways the mood to suit, 

In maudlin state their souls grow mute, 

Only to break more sharply out 

In some fresh accent of the rout ; 



62 THE PLANET. 

For changeable as April day 
Are men, when o'er them wine holds 
sway. 

" As if by sudden impulse moved 
Homage to pay to chief beloved, 
One rises 'mid that restless throng, 
And bids them hearken to his song : — 



" C I sing of our leader, our chieftain and lord; 
I sing of his greatness, for law is his word ; 
I sing of his valor, for swift is his sword. 

" ' Like the eagle, which looks from the crag o'er 

the plain, 
There is none in the valley to question his reign: 
All hearts are devoted his rule to maintain. 

" ' He is chief to the highest ; he is friend to the 

least ; 
Joy flows at his bidding like wine at the feast ; 
He speaks, and around him all sadness has ceased. 

" ' Like music the days in his courts flow along ; 
They pass in the fullness of pleasure and song, 
Or in war's wild commotion, the joy of the 
strong. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 63 

" ' Let his be the honor, as his is the might ; 
Let his be dominion, as his is the right ;j * 
His hand it was led us to liberty's light. 

" ' Long, long had our hearts been encircled with 

chains ; 
His arm gave the freedom his sceptre maintains ; 
His gift fills our wine-cups as blood fills our veins. 

" 4 Shout all for our leader, our chieftain and 

lord; 
To him be devoted each arm and each sword ; 
Our bosoms will pour out their tides at his word.' 

" Scarce has the loyal clamor ceased 
The praises to their chieftain meet, 
When of the revelers at the feast, 

Another struggles to his feet. 
With lusty voice and warning hands 
He, too, an audience demands. 
Of bloated cheek and mocking leer 
Is he who asks the general ear. 
His days, 'tis easy to be seen, 
A round of sensual joys have been. 
When mainly by his own lung-strength, 
Silence he has secured at length, 
He roars a stave to praise the source 
From which his words draw theme and force. 



64 THE PLANET. 

SONG. 

" ' You may sing of our leader in peace and in 

war ; 
I sing of a mistress more potent by far ; 
Whose prowess has triumphed o'er chieftain and 

lord ; 
Whose victims outnumber the slain of the sword. 

" 4 The name of the bright one I. worship is 

Wine : 
O red is her blood, and her smile is divine. 
Face to face with the highest she sits at the board, 
And bowing before her fall monarch and lord. 

" 6 In the conqueror's own blood we pledge to her 

name, 
Till the flood, as we quaff it, burns red as a 

flame. 
She comes to the great, and she comes to the 

small ; 
She enters our souls and makes kings of us all. 

" * She seeks out the poet in garret and cell ; 
She weaves o'er his fancy a magical spell ; 
The heavens are brought down to his own humble 

door, 
And he dwells' in a brightness ne'er dreamt of 

before. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 65 

" ' The earth without wine were a desert un- 
blessed ; 
Her shining illumines the wanderer's breast ; 
And life unredeemed by her presence — ah me ! 
The sooner extinguished, the better 'twould be. 

" ' To the praise of my charmer enraptured I 

sing, 
Resolved to take life, as I may, on the wing ; 
Nor caring one farthing what leader is mine, 
While the pay in his service is plenty of wine." 

" Ceased has the song, but tumult springs 

Redoubled from the calm it brings. m 

As spreads the fire contagious, where 

It has enough of food and air, 

So does the zeal the singer burned, 

Upon his comrades' bosoms turned, 

Run through their veins like fire and light, 

For wine is common favorite. 

Seizing their cups, the wine they pour, 

And drinking, pledge it o'er and o'er, 

Kiss with their lips its rosy brow, 

And like delighted lovers bow 

In admiration o'er their bowls, 

Then quaffing take it to their souls ; 

While noise of ringing cups and shout 

With laughter mingled, swelling out, 



66 THE PLANET. 

Serves like a chorus to prolong 
The fiery spirit of the song. 

" Scarce has the tumult spent its force, 
And the first lull come in its course, 
When in their midst, uprising, stands 
One who a hearing next demands. 
So youthful and so mild of mien, 
He looks unfitted to this scene. 
The softer light upon his cheeks 
Of fewer days of revel speaks, 
And slighter ravages betray 
Of wine's insatiate mastery. 
Stjll the warm flush upon his brow 
And flashing eye proclaim that now 
He, too, is in the tempter's way, 
And partly owns her blinding sway. 

" He stands erect ; the revelers pause, - 
The reverence which the better draws 
From baser elements always, — 
And on him concentrate their gaze. 
A moment's silence he maintains, 
Until assured that order reigns, 
And that their ears incline to hear, 
When he begins in accents clear. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 67 



" 4 'Tis not of the deeds of our leader, 
Nor yet of the charms of our wine, 

I sing, though refulgent the former, 
And brightly our full goblets shine : 

But something far better and dearer 

Is the object whose praise shall be mine. 

" ' 'Tis woman, dear woman, the charmer, 
Who keeps what is left that's divine ; 

The depths of whose soul's inner chamber 
Is the chancel of purity's shrine : 

O she, with the light of her favor, 

Is the loved one whose praise shall be mine. 

" ' When far from the path of first nature 
Our hearts, in their ruin, incline, 

Her love, like the vine in its arbor, 
Around us its tendrils still twine : 

O she with her deathless devotion 

Is the treasure whose praise shall be mine. 

" c To love is the path to discover 
The entrance to lifers richest mine : 

Who never has been a fond lover 
Feels nothing his heart can refine. 

O woman, with soul full of treasure, 
Is the jewel whose praise shall be mine. 



68 THE PLANET. 

" ' But once let the heart that is tender 
Be touched with the passion divine, 

And how soon to uphold and defend her 
Is sacrificed ruler and wine ? 

And woman, with magical power, * 
Is the idol whose praise shall be mine. 

" ' How oft for the glance of her favor 
Have heroes bowed down at her shrine ? 

How long have they languished in sorrow, 
Till yielding, love's lenities shine ? 

And woman, with all her caprices, 

Is the mistress whose praise shall be mine. 

" fc But woman, our dear honored mother, 
The first and the best of our line, 

Or sister or wife, who before her 
Can we in our bosoms enshrine ? 

And woman, while others adore her, 

Is the angel whose praise shall be mine. 

" ' Though far on the waste we may wander, 
And deep may dark prisons confine, 

One friend in our lot we have ever, — 
One star on our darkness shall shine : 

And woman, dear woman, the charmer 
Is the helper whose praise shall be mine.' 



THE CONSPIRACY. 69 

" The ready outburst of applause 

The strain of the last singer draws, 

Proves he has touched the master chord, 

And roused the feeling which keeps ward 

The longest in the soul of man, 

The strongest in the mystic plan, 

Dictator over all the rest, 

Man's first-born love — his last, his best, — 

His love of woman, at the breast 

Of his own mother learned, and grown 

More wide as sister forms are known. 

A passion 'tis like spreading vine, 

E'er seeking something to entwine, 

Till closing round the form of wife, 

It blends with her its purer life ; 

Then, as the years move on apace, 

A daughter dwells in its embrace ; 

And when from these 'tis wrenched, in vain 

It may for support seek again. * 

It finds no help in winds and skies, 

But falls to earth and slowly dies. 

No life can spring anew.; the place 

Is desert thence ; no smiling trace 

Of verdure shall recleck its face. 

" But mark ; the troubled mass grows still ; 

Laughter and song die on the air ; 
All cease to move, as if the chill 



70 THE PLANET. 

Of winter's breath had bound them there. 
The cup is held half raised ; the joke, 
In glee begun, but half is spoke. 
A silence falls upon the ear, 
Like pressure of a sudden fear ; 
And expectation seems to brood 
Cloud-like above the multitude. 

" The cause Ave know, as one is seen 

In stately majesty to rise ; 
The vision of whose haughty mien 

Makes him the centre to all e}^es. 
Submissive all before him stand, 
As if a master holds command. 
A man of scarcely middle years 
The object of their gaze appears ; 
In outer mould but few his peers. 
Well knit by firm and sinewy ties, 
His liuibs show more of strength than size. 
Activity and power to bear 
The shock of battle, and the wear 
Of toil and pain, are written there ; 
And fortitude at bav to hold 
Hunger and thirst, and heat and cold. 

" His countenance •*— a glance will tell 
The import of its meaning well. 
Command is writ in every look, 



THE CONSPIRACY 71 

The language of an iron will, 
Which ne'er could opposition brook, 

Indulged with lawless sway, until 
It comes to see all others formed 

As ministers to serve its ends ; 
And by no softer feeling warmed, 

Relentlessly pursues and bends 
To its own purpose every power, 
Or crushes like a useless flower. 

" So has ambition overrun, 

Like a wild poison vine, his soul, 
So utterly its good undone, 

So bound it in its dark control, 
That to his heart earth with its joys 

Seems nothing but his own footstool ; 
And hearts, its brothers, but as toys 

To beat obsequious to his rule. 
Ere it would other power obey, 
Or hold with it divided sway, 
'Twould sweep the universe away. 

" Safe in a rule long exercised, 
No more its purpose is disguised ; 
Authority sits on the brow, 

And lights its signals in the eye 
Before whose glance men quail and bow, 

Nor think to ask the reason why. 



72 THE PLANET. 

Passions unchecked, like fires at rest, 
Are smouldering in the silent breast, 
And still their lurid flashes rise, , 

And light by times his sunken eyes, 
While down the furrowed cheeks below 
Deep lines, like lava-channels, show 
The marks of fierce eruptions o'er, 
And tell of flames that threaten more. 

" Nor lacks there beauty in that mien, 

Or rather lines where it has been ; 

For waste of passion and of wine 

Has dimmed and scathed the fair outline. 

First traces yet the face retains, 

But wrecked and haggard it remains ; 

Like the last form of the proud sun, 

When far aclown the horizon 

The chilling- mists have o'er it rolled, 

Stripping it of its mail of gold : 

The form still there, but faint and cold, 

The banner of its brightness furled, 

As backward gazing on the world 

In anger, like an evil eye, 

It threats of tempest and calamity. 

Ah, little would you think to read 

The face of Amar in those lines, — 
For Amar's self it is indeed, — 

So little of the brightness shines, 



THE CONSPIRACY. 73 

Which erst had like a glory shed 
A halo round his youthful head, 
Making him in his beauty then 
The marvel and the joy of men ; 
So deeply have a few brief years, 

In battle or in revel spent, 
Wrought the fell ruin which appears 

In every faded lineament. 

" Turning towards the mountain's form 
And upward gazing at its brow, 

The fury of an inward storm 

Sweeps o'er his pallid features now. 

His teeth are set ; his hands are clenched, 

As if some fierce emotion wrenched 

The very tendons of his heart, 

Causing intolerable smart. 

'Tis past ; recalling milder mood, 

And turning to the multitude, 

Calmly he speaks, while every ear 

Is fixed, intent his words to hear : — 

" ' Companions, followers, friends ; 

The sharers of my toils and joys ; 
Whether the hand of fortune sends 

The good, or bad, or mixed alloys ; 
'Tis now in years but little more 
Than one short, quickly gliding score, 



74 THE PLANET. 

Since first, upon this very spot, 
You joined your fortunes with* my lot; 
When I, by one bold master stroke, 
The fetters of your thralldom broke, 
And made you free to choose the course 

Which to your own hearts might seem 
best, — 
Your hands no longer bv the force 

Of habit's tyranny repressed. 
Ah well can you recall that day, 
As this right hand dissolved the sway 

Which held your liberties enchained; 
How the old king was snatched away 

By his first-born, when tumult reigned, 
And safely borne by rapid flight 
To yonder sky-encircled height. 
And when w^e sought that proud retreat, 
To wrest from him the kingly seat, 
And make our victory complete, 
There came a tempest and a sound 
Which shook the universe around, 
Making the mountain's form to rock 
As in an earthquake's wrathful shock, 

And hurling shattered to the grouiid 
The narrow pathway to the height, 
By which alone our footsteps might 
Have reached the point of our desire : 
And thus was lost complete empire. 
Ah ! little did we then foresee 



THE CONSPIRACY. 75 

How dreadful was that loss to. be ; 

For thence the bitter with the sweet 
Has ever mingled in our cup^; 

Disease has come with rapid feet, 
And death has filled the measure up. 
Ere then our days were a fixed span, 
And life its even tenor ran : 
Its close was like the set of day; 
Time-wearied forms were borne away, 

? Mid songs of joy, by shining bands ; 
Not left behind like useless clay, 

And loved ones clasped the parting hands, 
As we are wont to part at night, 
To meet again in morning's light. 
But now dread forms invisible 
Forever in our presence dwell, 
Bringing a thousand harrowing ills, 
Fierce fever-heats and torturing chills, 
That rack our frames with maddening pains, 
And bind them oft in galling chains. 
On every side they press — each path 
Infest like ministers of wrath ; 
Intruding at our very feasts, 

And sitting at the social board, 
Dropping the poison of disease 

Into the cups where wine is poured ; 
Until we taste no flow of joy 
Unmingled with some dark alloy ; 



76 THE PLANET. 

And following in their footsteps, Death, 
The fiercest demon of them all, 

Comes snatching from the lips the breath 
Of young and old, of great and small, 

Till round our feet, like blighted flowers, 

Long ere their erst appointed hours, 
The loved and lovely fade and fall. 

" ; And nature, too, has felt the change ; 
Dark clouds, like hostile armies, range 
Above our hills, and pour their wrath 

Upon our verdure-garnished plains. 
'Long many a desolated path 

The wide and fatal ruin reigns. 
The flowers are blighted ere their time ; 
The fruits fall stricken in their prime ; 
And faint the fair world seems to grow, 
As if some sickness, sad and slow, 
Was eating surely at its heart, 
Destroying its most vital part. 

" ; Yon shining height the scourges spare : 

When tempests here devastate, there 

The light of heaven's sweet sunshine stays, 

Weaving a crown of golden rays, 

Or, melting into gentle showers, 

The clouds come down to cheer the flowers. 

Nor death nor pestilence has found 



THE CONSPIRACY. 77 

A foothold on that favored ground. 
Its blooms and fruits live fadeless on, 
Till their appointed days are done ; 
And watered by the brooks which rise 
In the pure fountains of the skies, 
Unfailing health and beauty reign, 
Ne'er harrowed by disease or pain. 
There youth to age holds on its way 
With easy march from day to day, 
Unconscious of a single foe 
Of the great army which below 
Our feet surround and overthrow. 

„ " ' And he who from us snatched all this, — 
Who shut us from that seat of bliss, — 
Now rules the peaceful sovereign there, 
To the old monarch's throne sole heir. 
To him untainted fall the sweets 

He robbed us by his bold design ; 
Alone he holds the pleasant seats 

For offspring of his own proud line. 
His children gather at his feet : 

Fair sons who fill his breast with pride 

Grow strong and active by his side ; 
And daughters of rare beauty meet 
His eyes, to make his joy complete. 
Ah ! nothing, where such gladness fills 
The cup of life, cares he for ills 



78 THE PLANET. 

Which here our broken pathway strew, — 
Which his own hand has doomed us to. 

" c Now mark ye, men, if men ye be, 
The prize may yet be ours, and we 

Possess the pleasant fields on high, 
To live once more the joyous life 

Which is not cursed and doomed to die, 
Nor subject to the wasting strife 
With ills we know not how to meet, — 
From which we here in vain retreat. 

" ' Now by my faith, and by my soul ; 
I swear it, here, before the whole 
Of this vast multitude, that he 

Who yonder mountain's face shall climb, 
Himself to strike the deadly blow 
Which terminates the hated foe, 
Or finds the pathway by which we 

May gain the height, shall from the time 
We win the prize we covet, be 
The second ruler in the land, 
The next in favor and command, 
In counsel and in war to lead, 
When I shall be a king indeed. 
Who thinks the price the peril worth, 

And now would court such enterprise, 

Seeking above his peers to rise, 
To claim the risk, let him come forth.' 



THE CONSPIRACY. 79 

" No more speaks he, but o'er the mass 
Of forms before him slowly pass . 
His searching eyes. Before their gaze 
All quail and shrink, as from the blaze 
Of some red furnace ; not one voice 
In all that throng proclaims the choice 
By which the speaker makes his own 
Destruction or a princely throne. 

" Like an impending storm is now 
The cloud which forms on Amar's brow. 
Fierce burn his eyes ; his breath grows short ; 
Dark swollen lines his cheeks distort, « 
As sweeps his vision far and near, 
And marks how all hold back in fear. 
His wrath upon that trembling throng 
In fiery words had broke ere long, 
When, issuing from the shrinking bands, 
Advancing, one before him stands. 
Surprise o'erspreads the chieftain's face ; 
Deep pallor soon succeeds its place, 
As backward reeling at the sight, 
He scarce can bear himself upright. 

"A slender youtli — a boy in years, 
Simply is he who thus appears. 
Less than a score of summers fled 
Have set their weight upon his head. 



80 THE PLANET. 

The mild expression of his mien 

Seems little suited to the scene ; 

Yet firm his glance ; unblanched his cheek, 

As he essays his will to speak. 

Bending his knee before the chief, 

Calm is his tone, his utterance brief: 

" ' Father, to undertake the task 
Ye name, the privilege I ask. 
When perilous deed is to be done, 
I were unfit to be the son 
Of an illustrious warrior sire, 
^Should I not to the work aspire.' 

" ' No, no ; ' outspeaks the father, o'er 
Whose brow conflicting passions pour ; 
1 O this can never, never be ; 
I cannot part, my boy, with thee. 
Better let dream of conquest go, 
With all the fruits it would bestow. 
Yon shining height, for years the goal 
On which has dwelt my longing soul, 
Were purchased at too great a cost, 
If thou, dear one, wert to be lost, — 
The one, the only ohe, my heart 

Has ever found to win its love; 
Dearer to me than life thou art ; 

Kingdoms and thrones, far, far above. 



THE CONSPIRACY. 81 

" ' And yet thou art a ruler's son ; 
The hope of all his labors, one 
Who would himself a hero prove 
To vindicate a father's love. 
O how to such the wish deny, 

When to his birth his soul proves true ; 
The deed itself is one which I, 

At his own age, had longed to do ; 
The danger 's self-sufficient charm 
To fire my breast and nerve my arm. 
/Vnd how, a chief, whose life should be 
Best proof of his authority, 
Can I from others aught compel, 
When my own weakness would rebel ? 
Go, go, the adventure seek ; I may 
Not to thy unwished prayer say nay ; 
Though would 'twere mine, instead, to bear 
The peril of the deed ye dare. 
My blessing take ; and Heaven above, 
O guard and spare the son I love ! 
Long have I scorned thy power, thy wrath 
Invited on my guilty path. 
On me the penalty descend ; 
But O, my boy from harm defend !' " 



CANTO FOURTH. 



THE MEETING. 

MUSE. 

" The shadow breaks ; Day's golden flakes 
Drift far o'er stream and vale ; 

The busy Morn her household wakes ; 
Her voice is on the gale. 

" The birds soar high ; from the clear sky 
Their notes come down like rain; 

The murmuring swarms beneath reply 
In soft applauding strain. 

" The dawn is here : O fair and clear 

Its lustre paints the hills ; 
Its voices in the breeze we hear ; 

Its life our bosoms fills. 

" Welcome sweet day ; welcome thy ray, 

Pure as a dream of heaven ; 
In sunny smiles prolong thy stay 

Till falls the veil of even. 



THE MEETING. 83 

" Rise up our souls in glad carols, 

Blithe as the birds that sing ; 
Rejoicing till the evening folds 

Its splendor-wearied wing. 

" The shining train brings back again 

The labor that we love ; 
Day's minstrelsy to cheerful strain 

Once more our hearts shall move." 



" Gladly we the task renew 
Day-spring calls on us to do, 
Listening to the wondrous story 
Told by father worn and hoary. 

" Touch the chord, the charm revive, 
Keep the flickering flame alive. 
See, the silent lips are stirring, 
Soon their grateful boon conferring." 



" The earliest tinge of opening day 
Has clothed the sleeping hills in gray. 
Standing close to the mountain's base, 
And looking up with thoughtful face, 
You may behold the form of one 
A glance will tell as Amar's son ; 
The same who had but yesterday, 



84 THE PLANET. 

When others shrunk in pale dismay 
From perilous deed their chieftain named, 
The hazard of the venture claimed. 
Erect and motionless he stands, 
His brow thrown back, folded his hands. 
Fixed is his gaze ; not that the view, 
In one outline, to him is new ; 
For with the first of boyhood's days 
This spot became his field of plays. 
Here was he wont, with eager eyes, 
To seek for richly-treasured prize 
Among the many-colored flowers, — 
Sweet playmates of those harmless hours, — 

Culling the most profusely dyed 
Which sprang along the pearly streams, 
Fed by the fountains in the seams 

That lined the mountain's craggy side. 

" Charmed by the tale his youthful ear, 
From older tongues, would sometimes hear 
Concerning people dwelling high 
Upon the mountain near the sky, 
; Oft would he sit, while hours went by, 
Close to the base, with eyes fast fixed 
Upon the line that ran betwixt 
The sombre rock and sky afar, 
As if, outlooking o'er the bar, 
He thought some stranger countenance 
Would softly down upon him glance. 



THE MEETING. 85 

" And there, as sleep stole o'er his sight, 
His airy dreams would scale the height 
To lead him through a garden rare, 
With fruits and blossoms bending, where 
A gentle maid would bid him share 
The sweetness of the place, and stay 
A comrade in her joys for aye. 

" Awaking thence, it was to scan 

Each frowning cliff and gaping seam 
Along the precipice, and plan 

Full many a bold, but idle scheme, 
In waking hour to realize 
His dream's exploit ; until his eyes, 
So often practiced to explore 
The same unchanging prospect o'er, 
Had made the features of the place 
Familiar as a parent's face. 

" But Eber now — for such the name 

By which the youth is to be known — 
No dreamer seems, although he came 

As dreamers wander, all alone. 
The glance which lights his serious eye 
Gives earnest of a purpose high. 
His limbs for rugged toil prepared, 
Of every useless garment bared, 
Show equal grace and strength. Around 



86 THE PLANET. 

His waist a leathern belt is bound ; 
While, unconfined, his raven hair 
Is loosely given to the air. 
Over one shoulder lightly flung, 
A coil of silken cord is hung. 

" Poised lightly there he lingers, while 
His eye sweeps o'er the frowning pile, 
Like some strong bird, when all its might 
It gathers for its highest flight, 
Measuring the dimly-crested height, — 
Then forward springs. A jutting rock 
Projects o'erhead : around the block, 
As round a friend, his arm is twined ; 
And he has left the plain behind. 

" Up, up from height to height he goes ; 
Vainly grim cliffs his course oppose. 
Swaying from point to point, each one 
Successive bears him further on. 
Now, like a pendulum in air, 
Lightly he hangs suspended where 
A darkly yawning gulf is all 
Which would receive his hapless fall, 
Full many a fathom down. Again 
His course is o'er an upright plain, 
Whose surface, scanned by distant eye, 
Seems in its smoothness to defy 



THE MEETING. 87 

The foothold of the butterfly. 
Along some rent, unmarked below, 
Traced in the rock, with footsteps slow, 
He steals his way, w T eavjng his hands 
Into the fissure by brief spans. 
This venture past, again he stands 
Like a carved statue in some niche, 
Far up the mountain temple, which 
The thunderbolt has scooped. A breath 
Alone he draws, and facing death, 
As if were given him to lose 
A thousand lives, his way renews. 

" Now far above the point a bow 
Would send an arrow from below, 

Though by the strongest archer shot, 
He seems in size a child to grow; 
Alas, 'tis plain, slow and more slow 

His course becomes, though faltering not. 
Still full of unextinguished fire, 
His eye directs its vision higher, 
But trembling limb and shaking hand 
Speak of resource almost o'ercome, 
Of failing grasp and fingers numb ; 
And soon the strength they yet command 
Must yield before the fearful strain 
With which the struggle they maintain. 



88 THE PLANET. 

" But now the highest point is near : 
The crest in view is plain, to cheer 
The toiler's heart, and whisper, ' On, 
The waiting prize may yet be won.' 
One desperate strain, one struggle more, 
The last and best, or all is o'er. 
A. glance above, a draught of air, 
And every nerve is brought to bear : 
On, on, and up, still up he goes ; 
The trial space is near its close ; 
The victory hovers ; Eber's hand 
Has all but reached the level land, 
Where o'er the brink a vine descends, 
From which full many a sweet flower bends, 
Projecting like a waiting friend, 
A hand of succor to extend. 
Delusive promise ! scarce his hand 
Has grasped it round, ere from the land 
Its roots give way, and with the shock 
His hands have parted from the rock. 
Upward they fly in empty air, 
The sudden prompting of despair, 

While that false vine, the cause of all, 
Sweeps lightly round his brow, and there 

Sits like a funeral coronal. 

" A breathed prayer, a glance on high, 
One fearful shout, one broken sigh, 



THE MEETING. 89 

And he has closed his eyes to die. 

But O not yet : a friendly clasp 

Has caught his hand, whose instant grasp 

Arrests his fall, and giving life 

To his dead hopes, renews the strife. 

His heart recalled, one effort more, 

One struggle, and the brink is o'er ; 

Safely he sinks upon the shore. 

" Whose is the saving hand ? That one 
Affright in turn now seizes on. 
As if some fearful prodigy 
Had sprung from earth before her, she 
Now flies the spot; for maiden coy 
It is whose hand has saved the boy. 
In years yet fewer than his own ; 
Of modest mien and slender zone ; 
Sweet Mariam 'tis, my own first-born, 
Who, wooed to wander by the morn, 
Had hied her forth amid the flowers, 
While yet the dew slept on the bowers ; 
And tempted on, now by a bloom 
Just glinting through the rising gloom ; 
Now by a bird that tripped before, 
As if its lay of love to pour 
Into her heart, itself as light 
And joyous as the songster's flight; 
Had bent her steps, devoid of care, 



90 THE PLANET. 

She little thought or questioned where ; 

Until the garden's outer bound, 

Formed by the precipice around, 

Forced her to pause. But tempter yet, 

To further risk, is to be met : 

A vine with blossoming clusters clad, 

Which on the very border had 

Taken its root, droops pendant o'er, 

With all its brightly blushing store. 

She stoops to gather, and her hand 

Has reached the flowers, when from the land 

The vine is wrenched, and a strange face 

Looks up in hers, where deepest trace 

Of agony is writ ; for on 

The brink the stranger totters, gone 

His hold upon the rock, and death 

Awaits h^m in the gulf beneath, 

As with blanched cheek, and upraised hands, 

About «to take the plunge he stands. 

" To give the hand in instant aid, 
Is woman's instinct, ne'er betrayed 
By thought of self in such an hour: 
To save she strives with all her power; 
A task in whose performance ne'er 
Obtruding comes the thought of fear. 
But when the peril past, her eyes 
Behold an unknown form arise, 



THE MEETING. 91 

Emerging from that rocky brink 

Like some unearthly one, and sink 

In silent posture at her feet, 

She feels an instant terror. Fleet 

Become her steps, as from the spot 

She turns in trembling haste ; though not 

Afar to go, since unpursued, — 

For such is woman's curious mood, — 

The wish to know the moving cause 

Soon bids her, in her fleeing, pause. 

In timid glance go back her eyes 

To where the dreaded object lies. 

u With brow upturned, he lies at rest : 
One arm is thrown across his breast ; 
The other - stretched toward the maid, 
As if imploring her for aid. 
Assured in part by such calm scene, 
She gazes on that quiet mien : 
Then curious for a closer view, 
Nearer and nearer draws she to 
The strange one's side, with heaving breast 
And smothered sound of breathing, lest 
Her footsteps, light as dew-drop's fall, 
Might to his feet that form recall. 

" Naught dark nor dangerous can she trace 
In the expression of that face ; 



92 THE PLANET. 

But rather in its pallid lines 
Is something which her heart inclines 
To take for sign of gentleness ; 
And to herself her thoughts confess, 
She ne'er before had met with one 
She felt so moved to gaze upon. 
Her heart is touched ; all unaware 
Springs up a sad emotion there, 
Whose seals upon her cheeks appear 
In many a gently falling tear. 

" Now, as she bends the stranger o'er, 

A feeling she ne'er felt before, 

An instinct of a deeper kind, 

Obtrudes itself upon the mind. 

A craving claim of sympathy 

The novel impulse seems to be, 

As if a common bond there was 

Betwixt the two, which draws and draws. 

She feels it growing, but she ne'er 

Bestows upon the spell a fear, 

Deeming it pity, and alone 

From sight of fellow's suffering grown. 

" While thus, without a guard, her breast 
Is left in charge of its strange guest, 
To its seductive whisperings bent 
Her heart inclines its free assent. 



THE MEETING. I 

Led by its promptings to the task 
Another's sorrows seem to ask, 
Nor more by fear to be denied, 
She kneels the unconscious one beside ; 
Lifts from the chilling earth his head, 
And on her knee gives it a bed ; 
Smooths from his brow the tangled hair, 
That the cool winds may visit there ; 
And with her flushed cheek bended 1ow t , 
Listens with anxious ear to know 
Whether, indeed, the heart has ceased 
Its wonted beat, fearing the least 
Of its renewed pulsations may 
Awake and pass unmarked away ; 
While on his brow unnoticed fall 

Her tear-drops like the summer rain : 
Quick as the rain drops to recall 

The slumbering power to life again : 

" For while she watches thus, his eyes 
Open with look of keen surprise, 
As on her countenance they rest, 
Where such deep interest is expressed. 
Scarce does he know w r hether to deem 
Himself awake, or in a dream ; 
The latter fearing, for that face, 
In all its lineaments, appears 
The same which oft in earlier years, 



94 THE PLANET. 

As he slept at the mountain's base, 
Had filled his dreams with joy, but aye, 
When he awoke, to pass away. 

" He drinks the vision in, while thus 
Remaining half incredulous ; 
For she is beautiful beyond 

The common lustre of her sex : 
In her all graces one close bond 

Of wondrous excellence connects. 
Just in the spring of womanhood, 

Its fairest flowers bloom on her cheek, 
The blushing rose shines in her blood 

Beneath a field of lilies meek : 

And now the language which they speak 
Is more impressive to his heart 
Than all the words tongues can impart. 
Compassion, sweetness, budding love, 
To their benign expression move 
The lights and shades which they improve 

In depth upon her countenance ; 
And all for him, though all unknown 

To her that his enraptured glance 
Discerns the secret of her own ; — 
For moveless as the dead he lies, 
All life concentred in his eyes, 
Fearful a breath, if issued, might 
Drive the sweet vision from his sight. 



THE MEETING. 95 

" At last the homage of a sigh 

Betrays the secret of the eye. 

Up starts the maid in haste to fly ; 

When quickly springing fears bestow 
On Eber's lips the power to say 
The earnest plea that she may stay ; 

In words declared so faint and low, 
Their prayer she cannot disobey; 
But turns, the sufferer to aid, 
With modest diffidence betrayed 
Upon her cheeks' increasing shade. 

" Again his head from the cold clay 

Is raised in woman's kindly way ; 

Upon her arm upheld, until 

Returning life has time to fill 

His weakened limbs with partial strength, 

When, rising by her help, at length 

He gazes round with wondering eye, 

First on the earth, then on the sky, 

Then on the maiden standing nigh. 

1 Where is this sweet, this charmed spot ? ' 

His thoughts find broken speech at last ; 
4 Is it a dream, or As it not ? 

And how have I been hither cast? 
And who art thou, fairest of all, 
On whom my eyes enraptured fall? 
Thy semblance I have seen in dreams ; 



96 THE PLANET. 

But this unlike a vision seems. 
Ah, now my wondering thoughts recall 
A mountain form gloomy and tall ; 
A fearful struggle up its side ; 

The summit all but reached, and then — 

The memory makes me faint again — 
A void, as if all hope had died, 

And dumb sensations of a fall, 
Down, down into a depth below, 
So vast, it seemed no end to know, 

. Until its darkness swallowed all. 
But this — this vision is not death : 
Life rules in all the scene ; the breath 
Of healthful day-spring fills the air ; 
Unfading blooms smile everywhere ; 
And thou, fair stranger, if that name 
One so familiar grown can claim, — 
For oft thy form in attitude 
Of friend extending welcome stood 
To bless my sleep, long, long ago ; 

And when I woke thy image stayed, 
Arching my heart, like a bright bow, 

Whose heaven-born beauty would not 
fade, — 
Thou, too, art here ; but where, O where 

Can be the blessed spot which opes 

The pathway to my brightest hopes 
From out the bosom of despair ? ' 



THE MEETING. 97 

" ' Thou art with friends,' the maid replies. 
c The little world I know now lies 
Waiting the view of thine own eyes. 
Here was I born ; amid these flowers 
Have I lived on the peaceful hours. 
With them for comrades and for friends 
My memory begins and ends.' 

" ' Thank Heaven ! ' the boy exclaims, ' my 
dream — 

A vision seen from year to year, 
And ever growing like a stream — 

At last finds consummation. Here, 
Amid bright flowers and clustering sweets, 
Where every form of beauty greets, 
And plenty-laden fields dispense 
An ample feast to every sense, 
I find her whom, with harrowing thought, 
Through weary years my soul has sought, 
The tenant of a lovely bower, 
Herself its sweetest, purest flower. 
What care I where the spot may be ? 
Better an island 'mid the sea, 
So we may claim it for our own, 
And on its bosom dwell alone.' 

" 4 O, speak not thus,' the maid replies, 
1 If either's peace of soul ye prize. 

7 



98 THE PLANET. 

I feel strange, sad emotions rise ; 
I never felt the like before, 
Nor knew such fruit the spirit bore. 
A dread, a dark, mysterious fear 
Of some impending evil near, 
Comes gloomily across my soul, 
As clouds their gathering shadows roll. 
Our meeting here, it seems to say, 
Brings peril in some hidden way. 
Disaster threatens in thy stay ; 
A wild confusion fills my breast, 
By strangest visitors oppressed : 
Not fear alone ; I feel within 

An impulse of another kind, 
Whose growing sympathies begin 

Around my inmost soul to bind 
A thrall of passion, one whose spell, 

Like sleep's, would bid me be resigned 
To its soft witchery, when well 
I know 'tis duty to rebel. 
Through all my heart it softly steals ; 
My brain beneath it turns and reels ; 
And this new sense — I know not what - 
Would hold me captive to the spot, 
While I w r ould fly, and draws my heart 

Towards thine own as with a chain, 
To wind whose growing links apart 
Would leave in mine a wound, a smart, 

Which time could never heal again. 



THE MEETING. 99 

" ' If it were mine alone to bear 

The ills which hang about this place. 
There's none I would not gladly dare, 

And smile in threatened danger's face. 
O then my heart would bid thee stay 
Companion in this scene for aye, 
Its every sweet to shar.e ; but no, 
You, too, would feel the crushing blow. 
Then cease to tempt me more, and go, — 
Go, ere the pending bolt descends 
Whose shadow o'er our heads portends.' 

" ' Nay, nay, upon this spot I swear,' 
The boy replies, with instant zeal, 
6 I will not leave thee more, — to feel 

The sharpest torments of despair, — 

Until this earth-implanted rock, 

Which sleeps beneath our feet, shall reel 

And shiver in destruction's shock, 

Divided in its inmost heart 

To rend our loving souls apart. 

Nay, while the stars above us meet, 
And part not in the boundless sky ; 

While the sweet flowers beneath our feet 
Remain entwined until they die ; 

While spirits of the sighing breeze 

Wander at will among the trees, 

And tuneful birds in every bower 



100 THE PLANET. 

Meet and confess love's magic power, 

Nor sundered are until they tire 

In fullness of their heart's desire. 

Why should our souls, whose higher aim 

Is kindled from a purer flame, 

Be thus divided in the hour 

They first have learned the depth, the power, 

Of that absorbing love, whose tie 

Shall time and space and fear defy? 

Say, who has right or power here 

Between our hearts to interfere ? ' 

" i My father,' comes the faint reply. 
1 Thy father ! ' and the boy's keen eye 
Lights with that look of quick surprise, 
In which a jealous anger lies. 
' Whom call ye thus ? Another here ? 
I thought thou wert sole being near ; 
Of this sweet spot the queen and child, 
Sprung from its breast like blossom wild ; 
A sister of the flowers, whose bloom 
Is on thy cheeks, and whose perfume 
Of mingled fragrance in the air 
Seems with thy breath its sweets to share. 
Ah, who is he who thus can claim 
The homage of that sacred name ? ' 



•*&*■ 



" c The task is sad, if you engage 
The story of my parentage. 



THE MEETING. 101 

Ne'er yet was its narration made, 
But tears have been the tribute paid. 
J Tis of two brothers, sons of one 

Who ruled the land with kingly sway ; 
But of his princely treasures none 

The king against his boys could weigh. 
Yet strange that, while they shared a love, 

The purest of a father's heart, 
Some deadly adverse spirit drove 

Their uncongenial souls apart. 
Not that the elder could but yearn, 

With the true feeling of a brother, 

To do a brother's part, the other 
Would still mysteriously turn 
With angry glance and frown away, 
And stand like bearded beast at bay. 

" 8 Whether 'twas envy in disguise, 
Hid like a serpent in his breast, 

Looking in anger from his eyes, 
And rearing its detested crest, 
When thing of hate came near its nest, 

That urged him to the fatal deed, 

I cannot tell, untaught to read 

The secrets of the human mind 

To guilt and stratagem inclined ; 

But this I know, that when the king, 
Grown old and weary with the cares 



102 THE PLANET. 

Which years of sovereignty bring 

To him that princely honors wears, 
Upon his elder son, who was, 
By reason of established laws, 
His heir to be, had willed to set 
His crown, ere paying nature's debt, 
And called his subjects round his throne 
That he might make his pleasure known, 
The younger, with an evil skilly 
Contrived their simple hearts to fill 
With jealous fears and doubts toward 
The rightful heir, their chosen lord. 

" ' With matchless art he knew too well, 
With smile and flattery's wondrous spell, 
He stole their love, till fortified 
In their firm trust, he threw aside 
With scorn his specious 'mask. The crown 
He seized, and hurled the old king down ; 
Then mounts the throne himself, w T hile high 
Uprose the people's frantic cry, 
Their chief and king with one acclaim 
Hailing the bold usurper's name. 

" c Forgetting all, the crown, the throne, 
Seeing his father's form alone, 
Bleeding and prostrate on the ground, 
The elder seized the old king round, 



THE MEETING. 103 

And bore him from that maddened throng. 
The mountain's top he seeks. Along 
The only pathway from the plain 
He bears his load with toil and pain ; 
Till here — the very spot where first 
Your presence on my vision burst — 
He sinks to earth, o'ercome at length. 
Unconscious in his wasted strength. 

" 4 When he awoke, he was alone ; 

His father's aged form was gone, 

And from that brother who had proved 

How vainly brother might be loved, 

The precipice that rose beneath, 

A battlement whose leap were death, 

Held him apart w T ith chasm wide 

As that which must their souls divide. 

Vainly he gazed upon the plain, 

By right of birth his own domain, 

Stretching afar on every side, 

Till in dim distance vision died ; 

All 'neath the proud usurper's sway, 

And he a prisoner at a height 
Which ever kept his hand away 

From riches ever in his sight.' 

u 4 O then he cursed the ingrate one, 
And all his line, invoking Heaven 



104 THE PLANET. 

To send its wrath from sire to son 

For crime too great to be forgiven ; 
Pouring into the children's blood 
The poison of the fathers' feud.' 

" ' Nay, nay ; you do him grievous wrong, 
Surprised at the emotion strong 
The boy's quick inference displayed, 
Reproachfully resumes the maid. 
4 Scarce had the first regretful flood 

Of natural tears sank in the earth, 
When one of his own flesh and blood 

Had robbed him of his right of birth, 
Where yet he stood, he knelt him down, 

Beseeching Heaven above to shed 

Its blessing on the traitor's head 
And consecrate his stolen crown. 
And still, at morn and eve, when on 

His knees before the Highest's throne, 
The loved recalling one by one, 

To whom he would have mercy shown, 
That brother's name is ever given 
The first unto the ear of Heaven ; 
And at that name the tears still flow, 
As fresh and fast as long ago.' 

" ' Enough ; enough ; I'll hear no more : 
The wdiole dark tale is told. Before 



THE MEETING. 105 

My eyes, as in the noon-day light, 
Rises to view the fearful sight — 
My father's crime. Nay, start not so, 
But hear me out ; for you must know 
That in the tale your words unfold 
The parentage of both is told. 
For O 'tis sorrowful that true 
As of those rival brothers two 
The elder one is sire of thine, 
That younger, guilty one, is mine. 

" c Nay, fly not yet, if you can bear 
With wretch like me to breathe the air. 
A darker tale your ears must greet, 
Ere the confession is complete ; 
For not content with former wrongs 
'Gainst those to whom his blood belongs, 
That ingrate has a crime assayed, 
So monstrous that its blacker shade 
Makes all the past beside it fade. 

'"To that insatiate greed a prey, 

Which seeks a universal sway, 

This spot, this earthly paradise, 

He would now make his lawless prize ; 

That, in its ruin, he may sate 

The vengeance of his bitter hate, 

Made doubly keen by fancied wrong, 



106 THE PLANET. 

And disappointment cherished long ; 
For time but renders more intense 
The heat of his malevolence. 
And I, now in thy presence, stand 
His minister, by his command, 
The partner of his crime, a spy 
First sent the dangerous way to try, 
That he may come with sword and fire, 
To vent his rage upon thy sire, 
And ruin bring on all his line, — 
The motive of his dark design. 

" c Now leave me, curse me, if you will : 

I never saw my guilt, until 

I met thee in this heavenly place, 

And looked into thy pitying face — 

Heard words which gave my soul a thrill 

Nor space nor time again can still. 

O, black presumptiveness ; that one 

Like me, the guilty Amar's son, 

Should in this peaceful nest intrude, 

A minister of crime and blood, 

And here dare look upon the face 

Of her, the purest of her race. 

Why does not Heaven, in whose full light 

Each motive of the soul is known, 
At once send down its bolt and smite 

The wretch who thus insults its own ? ' 



THE MEETING. 107 

" Still from his bosom vexed and tried, 

Had poured the self-accusing tide, 

But feeling taxed o'ermuch grows dumb, 

And Eber, conscience-pierced, o'ercome 

By thoughts that have no voice, stands there 

A speechless statue of despair; 

Till nature brings to his relief 

Her first and surest balm for grief: 

Tears fall ; his strained emotion breaks 

Into a storm of woe which shakes 

His weakened frame, like the bent oak 

On which the thunder-blast has broke. 

" Compelled at last to realize, 
Against the witness of her eyes, 
That Amar's son before her stood, — 
That name had ever chilled her blood,— 
The maid had turned in fright away, 
But that her limbs would not obey 
The prompting of her startled will, 
Leaving her captive, fixed and still, 
With trembling frame and heart afraid, 
To hear the dread disclosure made. 
But when she sees the falling tears, 
When sorrow's low, deep wail she hears, 
Quick pity dissipates her fears, 
And with the instinct woman feels 
When suffering to her heart appeals, 



108 THE PLANET. 

The weeping boy with thought to cheer, 

She draws compassionately near. 

His hand in hers she seeks to take ; 

Her touch seems all his grief to wake : 

' Back, back ! ' he cries, with sudden heat ; 

'Let not the light and darkness meet; 

If thing accursed and foul ye fear, 

One vile as I am come not near. 

I stand a base intruder here : 

Like thief by night, with guilty soul, 

Into this charmed place I stole. 

No right had I, no lawful claim ; 

A plotting trespasser I came. 

And O, immeasurable shame ! 

E'en thee, whose hand met mine to save 

A wretch from miserable grave, 

The fearful crime my heart proposed 

Had in its impious plan inclosed. 

" ; Why did I reach this spot at all ? 
Better had come the dreaded fall, 
Hiding in one dark, swift descent 
All trace of crime and punishment, 
Than once a glimpse of opening heaven 
To the delighted senses given, 
My soul should ever after dwell 
In memory's regretful hell. 



THE MEETING. 109 

" ' Ah ! better now myself to throw 
From yonder giddy verge, and so 
Begone, than here the blessed and pure 
My guilty presence should endure ; 
Then shall your eyes no longer see 
The odious thing which I must be.' 

" c O speak not thus,' the maid replies, 

As a new faith beams in her eyes ; 

6 Your crime was not 'gainst me, but Heaven ; 

Seek there, if you would be forgiven. 

Its power can dry the tears that flow, 

And turn the darkest stain to snow. 

The guilt, O 'tis not thine alone : 

A part I feel to be my own ; 

For something seems within to say 

Our hearts had met before to-day, 

Sharers in all their lives to be, 

Alike in bliss and misery. 

Nor is it idle thought. Our veins 

A common element contains ; 

And though the stream has in its course 

Been parted by obstructing force, 

At last the tides have met to blend, 

And flow together to the end. 

" ' Something there is, which seems to say, 
'Twas not by chance we met to-day : 



110 THE PLANET. 

Since you have come, in a new light 

The earth in all its forms appears ; 
A new life opens on my sight, 

Complete as if the growth of years. 
From* earth it reaches up to heaven ; 

With softer day it fills the air ; 
The skies above new tints are given ; 

The flowers beneath fresh beauties wear. 
Until you came, my heart was sealed ; 
Now r all its raptures are revealed. 
O more than brother ! 'twas by thee 
The hidden fountains were set free. 
"With thee the golden light would fade, 
Succeeded by a deeper shade : — 
Then stay. Why should we not consent 
To taste the joys which Heaven has sent ? 

" 4 Stay — stay — if for myself alone ' — 

How sad the boy's regretful tone — 

4 'Twere given to choose, O sweet the word 

Alas, now sharper than a sword. 

No, no, it cannot, cannot be; 

The hope is cruel mockery : 

'Tis vain that love would seek to hide 

The chasm which our lives divide. 

Thy soul is pure, — pure as the light 

Which flies at the approach of night : 

In this sweet spot enshrined apart, 



THE MEETING. 



Ill 



No stain has visited thy heart. 

A sinless one by Heaven beloved, 

In safety's paths thy feet have moved. 

While I — alas what do I here, 

A serpent to the dove-cote near? 

'Tis not for night to wed with day: 

Although the crafty tempter may 

Say to thy soul, " Thou shalt not die," 

And bid thee taste, when to the eye 

The cup it offers seems most fair, 

I know — whose lips the poison bear, 

Whose soul has found the draught despair — 

How worse than death the bond must be 

Which marries sin to purity. 

" ' Ah well thy safer instinct, fear, 
Gave warning note of danger near, 
When first upon this shore I stood, 
From yonder fearful gulf rescued. 
Though ours two streams from common 

source, 
Equally pure in primal course, 
Yet sullied one since their divorce, 
Never again their currents mate, 
But both become contaminate. 

" « I would be villain doubly base, 
If in my breast such love had place 



112 THE PLANET. 

As could for its own pleasures low 
Involve thee in its overthrow. 
Nay, nay, sweet trustfulness like thine 
Must suffer from no touch of mine : 
The guilt my own, the punishment 
Must on my head alone be spent. 
Ah, never could my soul consent 
That you the thousandth part should share, 
Though all of hell were mine to bear.' 

" To one by gloomy doubts delayed, 

Who has the prospect long surveyed, 

With purpose fixed comes bearing high, 

And confidence of voice and eye. 

So does the glow on brow and cheek 

Of earnest resolution speak, 

As Miriam gives her calm reply : — 

" ' Nay, tell me not what is to lose ; 
The peril mine, 'tis mine to choose ; 
Nor deem that danger's threatening front 
Can my soul's settled purpose blunt. 
When love has made the pathway plain, 
Doubt's crouching lions frown in vain. 

" ' Spirit alone of basest kind 
Gives tone and feeling to the mind 
Which safety deems the highest prize. 



THE MEETING. 113 

Love is a word for sacrifice ; 
•If for itself it lives, it dies. 
O doubly false 'twould be to hear 

Thy warning words so kindly meant, 
If selfish counselor like fear 

Could make my loving soul consent 
To bid thee go, and go alone, 
From craven weakness of my own. 
Nay, nay, whate'er thy portioned lot, 
Sorrow or bliss, I shun it not : 
E'en grief were joy, if it were mine 
By sharing part to lessen thine. 
The soul love enters, thenceforth fears 
Alone for him its choice endears. 

" ' And must the soul, when once the stain 
Has dimmed its light, impure remain ? 
Is there no help, no cleansing tide, 
By which it may be purified? 
When baseness mingles in the ore 
That holds the precious golden store, 
The searching fire excludes the waste 
By which the treasure is defaced. 
What more exacting flame than love ? 
Can it not from the soul remove 
The tainting dross, and leave it free 
To mate undimmed with purity ? 
Knowing from its strong light how clear 



114 THE PLANET. 

Thy passion burns, I do not fear 
Contact with even Amar's son : 
One fear I feel, the only one 

Which finds a lodgment in my heart, 
Coming like cloud across the sun, — 

'Tis that we may be fofced to part. 
That, that, indeed, were misery, 

Since we have met, and met to love : 
It surely cannot, cannot be ; 
Why not accept the sweets we see, 

And trust the end to One above ? ' 

" Their lips have ceased to speak ; their eyes 
A language more intense supplies. 
Ah, well their hearts its meaning know ; 
All doubt is melted like the snow. 
With one impulse, and hand in hand, 
They bend their knees at love's command, 
And following their pleading eyes, 
Their words of mutual promise rise. 

THE VOW. 

" ' One soul, one thought, one moving aim, 
Through all the rolling years the same ; 
One spirit born of changeless love, 
Stronger for evermore to prove : 

" ' One hope of liss, one fear of pain ; 
One plighting 'neath love's rosy chain ; 



THE MEETING. 115 

In joy confirmed, closer in tears; 

One pathway through the lengthened years : 

" 4 One intercourse of heart to heart ; 
Perfect, unchecked in any part : 
One being moulded from two souls ; 
Two hearts one sympathy controls : 

" ' One trust in every stormy hour ; 
To bear life's ills a mutual power : 
One grief, if grief there needs to be 
To make love perfect in degree : 

" 4 One end, when from the silent shore 
The winds go forth, the day's dream o'er : 
One haven for the wearied breast, 
Waiting like island in the West. 



*& 



" 4 In all things one from first to last, 
Through joy and pain adhering fast : 
Such is our vow ; O hear it, Heaven ! 
And be thy benediction given.' 

" Concluded is the marriage rite : 
Simple the words which souls unite, 
When love attends the wedding day, 
And gives the plighted heart away. 
A fond, a first embrace — what bliss, 



116 THE PLANET. 

In all the world to rival this, 
When youthful hearts meet unrestrained, 
And realize how much is gained ? 
Such joy is theirs ; but brief the space ; 
Eber must leave the trysting place. 
A closer straining to his breast, 
His lips to hers a moment pressed, 
A kiss that steals a trembling tear, 
A softly spoken word of cheer, 
Pledging another meeting near, 
And he has turned his back to go, — - 
Alas ! his father waits below. 

" The twisted cord, one end made fast, 

Adown the rocky slope is cast, 

And trusting to its slender strand, 

He makes his way, hand after hand. 

On jutting cliff his footsteps pressed 

Now gain a temporary rest ; 

And now suspended free and clear, 

A mere speck in the atmosphere, 

He seems, while swaying lightly there, 

To life connected by a hair. 

And O ! the agony intent 

Of her who watches his descent : 

From point to point she sees him pass ; 

Now lost behind some rocky mass ; 

Now into view again outswayed, 



THE MEETING. 117 

Still by the faithful cordage stayed ; 
Till 'mons: the blocks that lowest lie 
He glides in time beyond her eye. 
Fancy recalls his form once, twice ; 
But fails to cheat her vision thrice. 
Watching awhile the point where last 
His image into shadow passed, 
Homeward she turns at last to go, 
With troubled brow and footsteps slow." 



CANTO FIFTH. 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 

FIRST SISTER. 

" Tell me, sister, if you can, 
What the mystic power may be. 

Lives there not the breast of man 
But has felt its witchery? 

" All confess its subtle sway ; 

None above it, nor beneath : 
Kings its summonses obey ; 

Beggars listen for its breath. 

" Vain to buffet its decree : 

Its revenge is terrible : 
When it frowns its scorn, ah me ! 

Save us from its wrathful spell. 

" When it smiles, O Heaven ! O bliss ! 
Earth is an o'erflowing bowl ; 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 119 

But the surface we need kiss 
To intoxicate the soul. 

" Love they call the wondrous spell ; 

Sweeter name was never heard : 
Songs and laughing echoes dwell 

In the music of the word. 

" Whence its strange magnetic power ? 

Is it thing of earth or sky? 
Does it come like summer flower? 

Will it with the roses die ? " 

SECOND SISTER. 

" Hear, O Spirit, our request ; 
Thou, who enter'st every breast ; 
Knowing all the springs that move 
Tender hearts to sigh and love. 

" Thine the office to arouse, 
When impassive spirits drowse, 
Giving fervor to the cold, 
Making timid lovers bold. 

" Who has for a thousand years 
Daily sung the joys and tears, 
Those who love and those who sigh 
Having tasted, cannot fly ; 



120 THE PLANET. 

" Thou can'st make the mystery plain, 
Telling how the witching pain, 
Having found a vacant soul, 
Enters and supplies the whole; 

" Thou can'st tell from what it springs ; 
Whence it strength and passion brings ; 
O celestial One ! whose sway 
Thrills the bosom night and day." 

MUSE. 

" Go ask, if you like, why the meadows grow 
green » 
In the soft falling showers of spring ; 
And why, 'mid the branches, the blossoms are 
seen, 
Where the birds in their joyfulness sing. 

" Ask, ask, if ye will, why the morn, like a 
bride, 

Cometh forth from the chamber of night ? 
Or how, in its shining, the day is supplied 

With its heat and its lustre of light ? 

" Ye live and ye drink in the fragrance of 
flowers ; 

Ye repose in the glow of sunshine : 
Ah, little ye ask by what concert of powers 

The delight and the beauty are thine. 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 121 

" So love, it is free like the morn's spreading 
light ; 
Like the blossoms that open in spring; 
Who drinks of its fullness would ask by what 
right, 
Let him list to the counsel I bring." 



Let young hearts seek the gift of love, 
Nor wait for age to win the prize ; 

The virgin soul no power can move 

Like that which dwells in youthful eyes. 

Hearts thrive like flowers that look above, 
And court the smiles of morning skies. 

The treasure which the winner finds, 
Who early seeks affection's shrine, 

A wealth of preciousness combines 

Which all the gems of earth outshine. 

Love's gifts are matched congenial minds 
And souls touched with a flame divine. 

Who seeks and wins these treasures rare — 
Alas, why rare, since many need? — 

Would in youth's pleasure gardens fair 
A round of bliss eternal lead. 

Make haste ! the years on love's wings bear 
United souls at doubled speed. 



122 THE PLANET. 



" Hist ! be still ! he stirs, he wakes ; 
Hark ! his voice the silence breaks." 



" In eager, restless mass again 
The people gather on the plain : 
Behold them stand with anxious eyes 

Directed t'ward a central space, 
Round which encircling pickets rise 

To keep intruders from the place. 
Something they wait, but wait not long, 
Ere, issuing from the jostling throng, 
Two agile, stalwart figures bound 
Into the picket-guarded ground ; 
Then pause, and in each other's faces 
Look close to note the passing traces. 
Their frames are shaped from giant mould ; 
Strength lies in every compact fold ; 
Along their arms, left bare to view, 
The muscles rise like cords drawn through. 
As thus they stand, their sullen eyes, 
Whence glance to adverse glance replies, 
And brawny bodies, nerved and still, 
Give proof of practiced strength of will. 
But 'tis upon each hardened mien 
The index to the soul is seen, 
In lineaments whose sensual cast 
Proclaims of deep indulgence past ; 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 123 

And brow and cheek, whose dusky soil 
Is not the badge of honest toil, 
But comes of midnight feast and broil. 
The inner man, 'tis plain, has drunk 

So long of pleasure's crazing tide, 
That all the finer sense has sunk 

The baser elements beside, 
And passions of the darker kind 
Hold settled mastery o'er the mind. 

" The measure of each other's strength 
To their contentment had at length, 
The two, by common purpose moved, 
Approach like brothers well beloved. 
Around each other's forms they cast 

Their powerful arms in an embrace ; 
So close, it threats to be the last 

Which e'er will bring them face to face. 
Like serpents round the writhing prey, 

Their arms entwine the struggling foe, 
And every nerve is strained to lay 

The mutual adversary low. 
Each separate fibre seems alive ; 
They bend and press, and madly strive 

In fierce and equal contest clasped : 
Their fire-emitting eyes protrude ; 
Their swelling nostrils run with blood ; 

But still they hold each other fast, 



124 THE PLANET. 

As with the fatal grip of death. 
Neither relaxing sues for breath, 
Till one, o'ercome, a moment yields, 
And underneath the pressure reels : 
That moment, welcomed by the foe, 
Insures his speedy overthrow. 
Borne from his feet by greater strength, 
At once he measures his full length, 
With crushing jar and sullen sound, 
Upon the firmly trampled ground, 
While over him the victor stands 
With scornful smile and idle hands. 

" The multitude, in silence chained, 
Until the victory is gained, 
All order loses. Cheer on cheer 
Go swelling upward loud and clear, 
With fulsome praises of the one 

Proving the hero of the scene, — 
Applauses that as high had run, 

Whiche'er the conquerer had been. 

Then came two maids of beauteous mien 
A blushing garland in their hands, 
They trip them where the victor stands, 
Who, at their coming, bends the knee 
With smile of courtly gallantry. 
His brow decked with the flowery band, 
They lead him forth, each by a hand. 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 125 

11 Now for a change. The giddy throng 
Wait other sport, nor wait they long. 
Next comes a man of awkward height, 
Bedecked to play the merry wight; 
His face besmeared with various hues, 
His garments equally profuse, 
His ears of artificial size, 
As best becomes the quaint disguise 
Of a rude form in nature's plan 
Beneath the royal race of man. 
With shouts* and laughter's ribald peals 
The jeering mob trails at his heels. 

" He bears their mocking taunts a space 
With foolish stare of stolid face, 
Then springs with sudden bound in air, 
And whirls a rapid circle there. 
Round and around, fleet and more fleet, 
He comes at last firm on his feet: 
Then into air again, and lands 
This time erect upon his hands. 
Now sidewise bent, like hoop of steel, 
Along the ground he rolls, a wheel; 
Only to be transformed once more 
To shape more curious than before. 

" The crowd astonished looks : its jeers 
Give speedy place to boisterous cheers. 



126 THE PLANET. 

The clown accepts the doubtful praise 
With condescending bow and gaze ; 
Then swells the humor of the throng 
With further jest in jovial song : — 

SONG. 

" ' Come, lend me your ears, if a song you would 

hear ; 
A jolly round stave, and the price is a cheer. 
All men be my sport, be they ever so great ; 
O I make light enough of their heaviest weight ! 

" ' The world with its shams and its baubles to 

make, 
The great and the rich and the proud does it 

take: 
But O ! a sad world, after all, would it be, 
Were it not for a spice of wild fellows like me. 

" ' Ah, loudly they laugh at my looks and my 

words ; 
They call me a fool, do those arrogant lords : 
But mark ye, the shafts in revenge I shall send : 
He loudest shall laugh, who fares best in the 

end. 

" ' There's Dives, the rick, with his swollen es- 
tate ; 
His houses so vast, and his troubles to mate : 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 127 

" O fortunate man I " by the many 'tis said ; 
Yes, truly the heir, when the miser is dead. 

" ' There's Jehu, the fast, with his horses and 

wine ; 
He floats on the crest like the foam on the 

brine ; 
He gallops like mad, he's so merry and brave ; 
The faster his course leads it nearer the grave. 

"' There's Dandy, the fop; who so pompous 

and vain ? 
He dances and swells ; his an elegant reign. 
He spends all his life to fill other folks' eyes, 
And yet, when he's gone, there is no one that 

cries. 

" c There's Plodder, the sage ; he who lives by 

a rule 
He learned, when a boy, at an infantile school. 
He weighs and he schemes, and he measures 

life through: 
His measure at last, it is six feet by two. 

" ' There's Iceberg, the cold, a philosopher wise ; 
His feet on the earth and his head in the skies : 
But look for his heart where it is usually given, 
And in vain will ye seek on the earth or in 
heaven. 



128 THE PLANET. 

u ' The lesson I teach, though the song is a 

clown's, 
Is to drink of the cup which the blue goblin 

drowns ; 
For who w r ould refrain from the wine as it flows, 
For fear of the dregs of which nobody knows. 

" ' The present is sure, and the future unknown ; 
The joy of to-day may to-morrow be flown. 
Live life ere it dies ; O a very wise rule : 
'Tis yours, with my bow — the advice of a fool.' 

" Before the approbating din, 
Which follows the brisk harlequin, 
Has died away, a vision new 
Bursts dazzlingly upon the view. 
Emerging from the motley crowd, 
As breaks the sunshine through a cloud, 
A troop of beauteous maids advance 
With lightsome step to trip the dance. 
First drawing out a lengthened train, 
Their hands linked in unbroken chain, 
They stand in challenging array 
To meet the multitude's survey. 
Soon by a common impulse led, 

They first advance and then retreat : 
With softly undulating tread 

Anon the movement they repeat, 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 129 

Till, touched as by a hidden spring, 
They whirl, like tops from school-boy's string, 
Round and around a dizzy ring. 
Again they pause, on tiptoe raised, 
A target each observed and praised : 
Then, touched once more, with flying pace 
They join in an impetuous chase, 
Their bare arms flashing in the light 
Like blades that gleam in sudden fight ; 
While sparkling feet, unclothed and fair, 
Shoot by like snow-flakes on the air, 
Striking the earth with a disdain 
Which sends them back to earth again. 

" 'Tis motion's music, in whose rhyme 

Each attribute of song is bound, 
Its height of feeling as sublime, 
Its depth of passion as profound, 
As ever emanates from sound. 
Truly as tongues enraptured sing, 
Or to the bow responds the string, 
Or organ's stately columns roll 
The raptures of the human soul, 
Does action's minstrelsy proclaim, 
By simple movement of the frame, 
What thought of pleasure or of pain 
Within the breast holds passing reign. 
The tongue may clothe itself in doubt, 



130 THE PLANET. 

And send a vexing riddle out ; 
Even falsehood's slimy form may lie, 
With cunning fold and blistering eye, 

Beneath its cover in the dark, 
Ready with deadly spring to fly, 

Where'er it lists, upon the mark — 
But O, when action speaks to light, 
The secrets of the heart grow bright. 
Then every member is a tongue 
By which its inmost thought is sung. 

" Absorbed the gazing masses grow, 
Their eyes ablaze, their cheeks aglow. 
Already heated by the power 
Which wine had given to the hour, 
This only does it need to steal 
The slight restraining force they feel, 
And cut their spirits loose to ride, 
Like drift, upon excitement's tide. 
One being only in that throng 
Appears unmoved by dance or song: 
Behold the silent tenant of the throne 
Gloomy and sad he sits alone : 

u Around him is the spoil of war, — 
Strange ornaments from lands afar : 
A tiger's skin bedecks his seat ; 
A lion's hide is 'neath his feet ; 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 131 

A canopy above his head 
Of crimson and of gold is spread, 
And in close access to his hands 
A richly moulded goblet stands. 

" To look upon his clouded mien, 
Small seems his part in that gay scene. 
A frown rests on his brow ; his gaze 
Oft wanders in abstraction's maze. 
Long intervals in silence fixed, 
With sudden, fiery starts betwixt, 
He sits ; then rousing fiercely up, 
Seizes the brightly brimming cup, 
And drinks, as if the draught would drown 
Phantoms nought else could quiet down ; 
And then, as if the strife were vain, 
Settles him slowly back again. 

" Vainly the rabble sound their praise ; 
Vainly the song and laughter raise : 
Even vain do women's charms appeal 
In way to move all hearts not steel : 
His ears are deaf, his eyes are blind, 
Save to the inmates of his mind. 
Unnoticed pass the jest and song, 
The feats that please the careless throng, 
And if, perchance, a sudden cheer 
Of louder note disturbs his ear, 



132 THE PLANET. 

'Tis but to throw, a darker frown 
Across his brow of sullen brown ; 
'Tis but to add a fiercer light- 
To eyes that burn unduly bright; 
'Tis but to rouse his tongue to hiss, 
Between his teeth, a speech like this : 

" ; Fools, triflers in this idle scene, 
Absorbed in joys debasing, mean, 
Sporting like insects in the sun, 
Mere wantons, vermin, every one ; 
Willing to live while it is light, 
Content to die when falls the night ; 
On with your sports, in joys like these 
Your simple, childish natures please. 
The better slaves ye make to do 
The work I have condemned ye to, 
When such vain baubles sate the will ; 
The wages your exactions fill : 
Led by your souls' unmanly greed, 
On husks and worthless garbage feed. 
And yet I hate your joys, the low, 
Base pleasures of this foolish show. 
They make me envy ye, poor fools, 
The lives that fit ye for the tools 
To do my selfish will. They show 
Your service is apportioned so 
That ye have rest, by times, from toil. 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 133 

Your lives are not one constant spoil ; 
With days of strife your labors cease ; 
Ye have by night the sleep of peace. 
Your master does not ply the scourge 
To drive ye to the very verge. 
With humble hopes, ye do not feel 
Ambition's wild, unsparing zeal, * 
Which, ne'er content, though filled before, 
Still cries unceasingly for more. 
Insatiate want ; like some wild beast 
Which' craves a red, unhallowed feast, 
It seeks my soul at earliest dawn, 
And through the day still follows on. 
O, vainly would I fly apace : 
It holds me an unequal race. 
I've given it bloody sacrifice, 
But still for blood it ever cries. 
Blood, blood which I should deem a part 
Of the warm current of my heart, 
To blush in murder on my hands 
My dread pursuer now demands. 

" ; Unthinking bacchanals, I hate 
The senseless bliss ye manifest. 

Your notes of wanton pleasure grate 
Reproachfully upon my breast ; 
They tell me others still are blest. 

Were ye not needful in my hands, 



184 THE PLANET. 

With one fell swoop I'd blot ye out 
In the full tide of your mad rout ; 

Since man, as I now see him, stands, 
Where'er w T e meet, a foe, a spy, 
Who views me with an evil eye. 

Give me the sway my bosom craves, 

And I would crush ye all, base slaves. 

Were the broad universe my own, 

I'd hold it for myself alone.' 

" Thus muttering through his teeth, the chief 

Seems to have found a slight relief. 

Settled his saddened look has grown ; 

His lips compressed, as if of stone ; 

And steadily in empty air 

His eyes are set in vacant stare. 

What vision occupies his brain, 

That gives his brow that shade of pain, 

Or what regret or hate he feels, 

No further spoken word reveals. 

Still swells the tumult's mad excess, 

Observing reason less and less, 

As wine extends its riotous sway 

Towards the closing of the day. 

Each full of his own little whim, 

Scarce notes the neighbor next to him, 

And joy and anger come and go 

As frolic's fickle currents flow. 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 185 

Thus in the midst of revelry, 
Like some firm rock amid the sea, 
Where shattered billows leap and play, 
Each in its own abandoned way, 
The chief dwells in unsocial mood, 
Condemned amid the feast to brood 
On thoughts and memories that find 
No place beyond his own dark mind. 

" All else is lost : laughter and cheer 
Leave no impression on his ear. 
He fails to note, when at his feet 
A boy has knelt, anxious to meet 
Affection's recognition sweet. 
He hears no sound, when growing bold, 
The youth cries out, ' Father, behold 
Thy absent son — he comes again.' 
Not till, unable to restrain 
His eagerness, with nervous hold 
The boy has seized his garment's fold, 
The chief arouses, starts and to 
His feet upleaps as if struck through 
By covert foe ; then gazes round 
Wildly and vacantly, till on 
The countenance of his own son 
His eyes alight, when, with a bound 
And cry of joy, unto his breast 
His son is long and fondly pressed : 



136 THE PLANET. 

' My son ! my son ! O God ! O God ! 

I give thee thanks for once. This hour 
Insures me from the heaviest rod 

Thou hadst in thy Almighty power. 
Had he been lost, my brave, sweet boy, 
Thou wouldst have robbed me of all joy. 

" ' But tell me now, my son, what cheer 
Hast thou brought for my anxious ear? 
Didst find the height too great to scale ? 
The mountain's side without a trail ? 
The precipice too steep ? The wood 
Too full of fearful solitude ? 
Nay, nay, I do not blame ; the deed 
Had no small share of danger's meed. 
What veteran hearts dared not engage 
Might w r ell appall thy weaker age : ' — 
For suddenly the boy's eyes fall, 
So painfully those words recall 
Remembrance of that strange delight 
He shared upon the mountain's height. 

" ' Nay, father, nay, the steep, though high 

And terrible as winter's sky, 

Was not too great for me to climb : 

The path was not too dark to trace ; 
My wanderings oft, in boyhood's time, 

Had led my footsteps to the place. 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 137 

I reached the mountain's summit where ' — 
He stops, but quick as anxious thought 
The chieftain's voice to thunder wrought, 
Recalls the tardy speech : c And there 
What saw ye, boy? at once declare.' 

" ' A vision wonderful and bright 

As ever blessed my dreaming sight: 

A land the fairest which the sun 

Has ever looked in love upon. 

The air was full of gentleness ; 

The winds were hushed to a caress : 

The waters, singing as they run, 

Smiled back the blandness of the sun : 

The birds were jubilant ; each tree 

Resounded with their melody : 

The flowers — the sweetest, loveliest forms 

The day's ethereal brightness warms: 

I realized at once I stood 

Where all was beautiful and good.' 



t>^ 



" 'And man! — whom found ye in this place? 
Met ye not there some mortal face ? 
What selfish, pampered creature holds 
The sweets such loveliness enfolds ? ' 

" ' O there my hand was met and pressed 
Like hand of an expected guest ; 



138 THE PLANET. 

And eyes looked into mine and smiled 
As if I were a truant child 
Returning to a parent's side 
From wanderings perilous and wide. 
For dwelleth there a father, round 
Whose feet fair children gather, crowned 
With honored lustre of gray hair, 
Like mountain rising high in air, 
Beneath the shadow of whose snows 
Green hills and smiling vales repose. 
'Tis not so much from years as grief 
His head has gained its ripened sheaf; 
For O ! in that bright spot where sin, 
The curse, has never entered in, 
There fell a fearful, crushing blow, 
Piercing the heart with sharpest woe. 
A brother's dreadful crime the cause, 
'Tis said, of the great sorrow was. 
Not that regret has left behind 
Its poisonous dregs to taint the mind ; 
That brother's name is mentioned there 
Alone in words of earnest prayer, 
When pleading with a heart of love 
The father seeks the Throne above. 
Peace rules the scene ; no thought of strife 
Disturbs the even flow of life : 
Even he, the victim of such w r rong, 
Who still must feel remembrance strong, 



LOVE'S TRIUMPH. 139 

I found unmoved by danger near; 
Open his heart, devoid of fear.' 

"'And then, — ah, then ye struck! One 

blow, 
And perished my most hated foe.' 

" ; O then, by yonder heaven, I swore 

This hand should sink to dust before, 

At bidding of a mad desire 

To spread the bondage of empire, 

The pride of power to satiate, 

Or minister to envious hate, 

I would contribute to destroy 

That earthly heaven of peaceful joy, 

Or bring to harm the meekest flower 

That decks remote its humblest bower.' 

" O, vain it were to paint the look 
Of fiery rage the chieftain shook 
At this rebellious answer. Scarce 
Have died the startling words, when hoarse, 
With clenched hand shook toward the height, 
Now radiant with the evening's light, 
While all beneath wears deep'ning shroud, 
His voice, like thunder, breaks aloud : — 

" ; Again ye thwart me. Once again 
My hand falls powerless and vain. 



140 THE PLANET. 

Ah, hated brother ; deadliest foe ; 
Ye now have struck the keenest blow. 
Deep in my heart the steel has gone, 
When ye deprive me of my son ; 
The greatest wrong, by Heaven the last, 
Which more than buries all the past. 
It calls for vengeance at my hand, 
The deepest, deadliest ever planned 
By fiend or man in hpur of hate, 
Or tiger robbed of young or mate. 
Ah, now I swear another day 
Shall never rise and pass away, 
Which finds me not cold, soulless clay, 
Or thou, my brother and my foe, 
O'ercome, defeated, crushed, and low.' ' 



CANTO SIXTH. 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 

" Great God ! whose dwelling is on high ; 

Whose eye is everywhere ; whose ear 
Is ever open to the cry 

Of such as, led by reverend fear, 

Unto Thy holy throne draw near : 
To Thee we come, behold, w T ith heads 

Sunk to the dust in deepest awe, 
Bowed by the majesty which spreads 

Around Thee as the God of law ; 
Whose throne is righteousness, whose word 
Is judgment's swift and mighty sword, 
Knowing that in Thy hands are power 
And strength beyond each mortal tower, 
. Vengeance and death and sacred wrath, 
The clouds which vail the tempest's path, 
The thunders of the upper sky, 
The bolts of fire which swiftly fly, 
The scourges terrible that light 



142 THE PLANET. 

And wither as the winter's blight : 
To Thee, the mighty God, in fear 
We would not come unduly near. 

" To Thee, who shaped the rolling spheres 
And holds them true through tireless years ; 
Who built the hills, who formed the deep, 
Laid earth's, foundations where they sleep 
In silence with the countless dead ; 
Before whose voice the darkness fled, 
And light came bounding into space, 
Like the swift courser for the race ; 
Creator of the seasons' round, 
Making the earth with fruits abound ; 
To Thee we would in worship raise 
A voice of thankfulness and praise. 

" But chiefly as the God of Love, 

Our Father! for that name above 

All other appellations suits 

Thy pure and lofty attributes ; 

As children supplicating, we 

Would fain approach on bended knee, 

Asking those blessings which are given 

To all of them who ask aright, 
Distilling from the bliss of heaven 

Like brooks drawn from the mountain's 
height ; 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 143 

Whose tide still leaves the fountain full, — 
'Tis thus forever with Thy grace — 

And flowing grow to rivers cool, 

To reach and cheer the desert place. 

a Not for ourselves, O Lord ! we pray ; 

Thy mercies have been full for aye, 

And past the measure of our worth, 

Vain transitory worms of earth ; 

But hear, we ask, for one whose way 

Has led from all Thy paths astray, 

Whose hand has done despite to Thee, 

Whose heart has scoffed Thy mercies free, 

Whose soul is full of bitterness, 

Whose feet are on a precipice ; 

Save him, we ask, if to Thine eyes 

The gift of grace seemst not unwise ; 

Bring back his wandering feet to peace, 

His sense of love revive, increase ; 

Let light from Thine own countenance shine, 

The holy light of Love divine, 

In on his darkened soul, to melt 

The stony hardness of its guilt ; 

Bring back his heart once more to feel 

The fervor of a brother's zeal ; 

And O ! recall that higher love 

The creature owes his God above, 

Recipient of his goodness vast, 



144 THE PLANET. 

Child of a thousand mercies past, 
Of prayers uncounted, love untold ; 
Make him the child he was of old ; 
If to Thy sight 'tis well always, 
And adds to Thine eternal praise." 

Words are at best but sadly faint 
The meaning of the soul to paint, 
When its full utterance is given 
In prayer, the highest plea, to Heaven. 
Tears, in that hour, speak plainer, more 
Of what the spirit has in store : 
But 'tis the faltering, trembling tone, 
The half-suppressed, unconscious groan, 
The up-directed glance, the strain 
Upon the features which the chain 
Of anxious thought has drawn like pain, 
The quivering lip, the deep unrest 
Which agitates the laboring breast, 
That give the proofs, the strongest, best, 
In all which feeling can portray 
Of what the earnest soul would say, 
When with its God, the God it loves, 
In a petition strong it moves. 

Who that has heard a good man's prayer, 
Has not felt something in the air, 
A sweetness as of Paradise ; 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 145 

As if the gates of heaven were near, 
And breezes which therein arise 
Had wafted from its cloudless skies 

And loaded all the atmosphere ? 
Who has not, in that hour, felt pride 
And hate and selfishness subside ; 
A holy calm come o'er the soul 
As gently as the waters roll 
Along the pebbled beach ; the whole 
Of feeling in one thought compressed, 
Which has extinguished all the rest ? 
All these are here : the tearful eye, 
Fixed as by magnet's power on high ; 
The voice low, tremulously hoarse, 
And broken by emotion's force ; 
The shaking hand, the pleading look, 
The body agitated, shook 
By force of that internal zeal, 
Which only those who pray can feel ; 
Each evidence the spirit gives 
Of the abiding faith that lives 
Eternal in the Christian's breast, 

Which, fixing on some precious aim, 
Persists and toils to urge its claim 
In ceaseless plea, and will not rest 
Until it conquers its request. 

" One heart there is, which ne'er had heard 
10 



146 THE PLANET. 

That prayer before, but it was stirred 
As deeply as if every word 
And swelling sigh and broken tone 
Were special utterance of its own. 
But strangely now oblivious seems 
The maiden's look, as if in dreams 
Her heart had wandered from the spot, 
And present things were quite forgot; 
Now brightly flushed, now deeply pale, 
Her cheek and brow tell ample tale 
Of some unwonted visitant, 
Some strange emotion come to haunt 
And break the quiet of that rest 
Which had before retained her breast. 

"Ah, hapless maid, is't thine to feel 
That passion sharper than the steel, 
Insidious in its coming, slow, 
But terrible w T hen falls its blow ? 
No lightning in its deadly wrath 
E'er marked more fearfully its path ; 
And yet, how oft with flowers is strown 
The highway where its steps have gone ? 
Tormentor of the human breast, 
Yet never heart was fully blest 
Without its fire, its heat, its light, 
Which can refresh as well as blight. 
Its fruit — who tastes of its full store, 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 147 

Sometimes will never hunger more ; 

Sometimes, alas ! will learn desire 

To burn like a consuming fire, 

Which never, never will expire. 

Since Love, fair one, hath come to thee, 

Thy bark is on a stormy sea : 

One haven on its distant shore 
It has 'mid valleys hid away, 
Where flowers and sunshine ever stay. 

If this thou reach'st, toil is o'er, 

And peace shall bless thee evermore. 

But rocks line all the gulf beside, 

Where breaks an ever angry tide, 

And on its bosom tempests ride, — 

Wild, pitiless winds, which would betray 

The voyager upon his way. 

" The words of supplication ceased, 
Like one from irksome bonds released, 
Out from the presence of her kind, 
Out in the glad, fresh morning wind, 
The maiden glides ; out where no eye 
Upon her looks can play the spy; 
Where in companionship of flowers 
She may unmarked employ the hours ; 
Where oft in thoughtless mood engrossed 
Full many a summer's day was lost. 
Again the favorite haunt she finds, 



148 THE PLANET. 

Again the fragrant garland twines ; 
But having plucked the blushing spoil, 
Her fingers oft forget their toil, 
And idle 'mid the blossoms lie, 
While from her breast escapes a sigh. 
And moving oft from place to place, 
She gazes dreamingly on space, 
Like one between two paths in doubt, 
Not certain which is safety's route. 
As with the traveller in strange lands, 
Who 'twixt conflicting pathways stands, 
When doubtful courage chooses one, 
Hope urges on his feet to run, 
Till fear obtruding bids him stay, 
And holds him halting in the way ; 
So fares the maid, when to some end 
Her movements seem by times to tend. 
Quick sped her feet the while, and then 
She pauses, stands, and starts again. 

" A hidden consciousness is there, 

Which tells of doubtful ground somewhere; 

A voice whose hesitating tone 

Scarce makes its warning accent known, 

As 'gainst the impulse of desire 

It struggles for the mind's empire ; 

A losing contest when the heart 

Assumes the crafty tempter's part. 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 149 

Plain is the issue with the maid, 
Between opposing forces swayed ; 
The stronger is at last obeyed. 
In one direction now her course 
Lies, spite of all retarding force ; 
And gathering strength from struggles past, 
Each step grows firmer than the last. 
Eager become her feet, and light ; 
Her eye beams confident and bright, 
As on through fields of fragrant spray 
She takes a swift and steadfast way ; 
Regardless of the blooms which gleam 
New-robed in morning's golden beam, 
Glad with the smiles with which they greet 
The young sun's dew-besprinkled feet, 
Coming their saddened hearts to cheer, 
And like one absence has made dear, 
Kiss from their cheeks the tears which Night 
Let fall upon them in her flight. 
Sweet flowerets, which so large a share 
Had ever won of Miriam's care, 
Holding their cups with incense filled, 
Fresh from the morning dews distilled. 
Temptation strong to bid her stay 
In idle dalliance by the way ; 
E'en these, when o'er her path they bow, 
She casts aside unnoticed now, 
And onward presses, while behind 



150 THE PLANET. 

They bend, as if to grief resigned ; 
Until upon the very bound 
Of rock which lines the garden round, 
Where the next step would be in air, 
She pauses, flushed and trembling, where, 
On yesterday, her wondering eyes 
Had first received their great surprise ; 
Where Eber's startling step had been ; 
Where his lithe form had last been seen. 

" Over the brink she casts her eye, 
And backward starts with sudden cry ; 
For down the rocky slope, beside 
The cliffs worn face, in air doth ride 
A human form, dependent on 
The cord which Eber's hand had thrown, 
Ere down its surface he essayed 
Return the way his feet had strayed. 
Her breath she holds, nor second look 
Can her fast ebbing; courage brook 
On one who hangs suspended where 
A single breath of summer's air 
Might break the thread, at best a hair, 
And in the awful space beneath 
Consign all hope to certain death. 
Trembling she waits the fearful strife, 
Whether it end in death or life ; 
And long, thrice long, the space appears, 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 151 

So greatly lengthened by her fears. 
Almost of hope bereft, her breast 
By painful boding is oppressed, 
When joy, the dreadful period past, 
The waited form appears at last, 
And safely, with a lightsome bound, 
Beside her stands on solid ground. 
Too much relieved to know or care 
For aught except that he is there, 
With joy her heart cannot restrain 
She springs to welcome him again, 
And totters back with upraised hands, — 
'Tis Amar's form before her stands. 

" ' All, all is plain ; the tale is told,' 
Exclaims the chief in accents cold, 
As his bold piercing glance surveys 
The fright the maiden's look betrays. 
And she, too much o'ercome to fly, 
Too much abashed to make reply, 
Stands cowering 'neath his vengeful eye, 
And sees before her that fierce one, 
Whose name, of all beneath the sun, 
She ever had been wont to hear 
With wildest violence of fear ; 
Sees, one by one, strange forms as dread 
As he by wdiom their force is led, 
Like beings of infernal birth, 



152 THE PLANET. 

Uprising as from solid earth, 

By their grim leader's side a band 

Of scowling warriors take their stand : 

4 The riddle 's solved ; I see, I see 

The secret of the sorcery 

Which has enticed my boy from me. 

Ah ! shrink and cringe, enchantress fair ; 

No love-sick boy now r seeks thy lair. 

A father wronged, you see instead ; 

A man outraged, upon whose head 

A thousand injuries have been shed ; 

Whose heart a thousand thorns have bled 

And he whom ye call " father " was 

The one predominating cause. 

To his sole agency I owe 

A debt of deep and lasting woe ; 

And here, behold, I stand to-day 

The debt of bitter years to pay. 

Nay, spare your tears, they fall in vain ; 

My heart melts not beneath such rain. 

My soul exults at thought of pain 

To him whose life has been to me 

Source of infinite misery, — 

To him and his ; for x O 'twill lend 

The keenest pang, should first descend 

The crushing blow upon the young 

That from his fruitful loins have sprung. 

To crush the viper and his brood 

At once, will be revenge thrice good.' 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 158 

64 ; Hold, rash man ; hold ! ' so quick and clear 

The accents strike upon his ear, 

The chieftain's outstretched hand is stayed 

Ere it has touched the trembling maid, 

And with a pale, but fearless mien, 

Eber has leaped the two between, 

Obtruding his own slender form 

To shield hers from the threatened storm. 

4 Hold ! hold ! ' he shouts, with flashing eye ; 

4 Touch not this helpless form, lest I 

Forget I am my father's son — 

Forget my blood and thine are one, 

And hold thee for the bitterest foe, 

Whose blow shall answered be with blow. 

Back from this spot, if ye bear love 

To aught on earth, or aught above ; 

If ye have hope to be forgiven 

The scorn of man or curse of Heaven : 

For it is sacred ; Love and Peace 

Have here their rightful dwelling-place. 

O shame that ye should here intrude 

With thoughts of violence and blood ; 

Of doves, not vultures, 'tis the nest, 

By Heaven's own benediction blest ; 

For ye have come with vulture's hate 

On innocence thy grudge to sate. 

Such cruelty alone could seek 

On this young form its spite to wreak. 



154 THE PLANET. 

No loss of thine is crime of hers ; 
Thy jealous temper grossly errs. 
No subtle snare, no witchcraft art 
Was wrought by her to win my heart, 
And turn its purposes from thine ; 
The fault, if fault there is, is mine. 
At thy command I came ; I found 
A blessed spot, an Eden, ground 
Made holy by love's presence, where 
A sense of bliss filled all the air. 
I saw the innocence, the peace, 
Where thy ambition had no place ; 
Learned all its perfectness of joy, — 
A state thy coming would destroy, — 
And vowed that in thy work of blood 
Participate I never would. 
I am sole culprit, on my head 
Let fall the blow, the curse be said.' 

u '* Traitor ! ' comes hissing through his teeth, 
As Amar's sword leaps from its sheath, 
And through the air with sudden light, 
Flashes its mad and deadly flight. 
What ! hold ! would'st murder thine own 

son ? 
Quicker than thought the deed is done. 
Struck to the heart, a moment stands 
The wounded boy, with up-thrown hands ; 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 155 

Then slowly topples to his fall. 

A shriek — alone among them all 

The girl has sprung to render aid ; 

In her faint arms his form is stayed : 

Too slight her strength ; down, slowly down, 

As if o'ercome by sudden swoon, 

He sinks in silence to the ground, 

The life-blood flowing from his wound. 

Half-prone he lies, like one at rest, 

His head propped on the maiden's breast, 

And so composed and mild his brow, 

You would have thought him sleeping now, 

But for his eyes, which, open wide, 

Are filled with life's profoundest tide ; 

So bright and resolute they are, 

Each blazing like a silent star. 

Upon the murderer's brow their light 

Is centred with intensest sight, 

Which, sharper than the fatal steel, 

His deepest soul appears to feel. 

Before that gaze even Amar quails ; 

His desperate resolution fails : 

Upon the ground his blood-red brand 

Falls harmless from his unnerved hand, 

And back he shrinks as if to fly 

The vengeance of the accusing eye. 

In vain ; he cannot turn away : 

The dread avenging fires still stay ; 



156 THE PLANET. 

They front him like a beast at bay. 
Back, back he presses, still those eyes 
Pursuing as the murderer flies, 
Unconscious of the danger near 
Which threats destruction in his rear. 

" Close is the cliff, beyond whose face 

Yawns the deep gulf of frightful space, 

Like a huge monster in the way, 

Waiting the coming of its prey. 

Nearer and nearer to the brink, 

Where every hope of life must sink, 

Each backward step the victim brings. 

Is there no helper present? Springs 

No one to save with friendly arm ? 

Is there no voice to give alarm ? 

Alas ! all hands are paralyzed ; 

All stand like stone, struck dumb, surprised 

Out of expression, as they gaze 

In the deep stillness of amaze. 

Another step is death ; O save 

Even him from such a frightful grave ! 

'Tis taken, nor sound comes back to tell 

The depth of that terrific hell. 

" Their hands are clasped ; their upturned 

eyes 
Are fixed upon the mellow skies, 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 157 

As if earth's parting thought had been 
A dream of heaven, pure and serene ; 
A glimpse of home beyond the shore 
Where spirits dwell in doubt no more. 
O death had gently touched the clay, 
Leaving life's shadow like a ray 
That lingers from the parting day. 
The stream from Eber's bosom shows 
The path which the destroyer chose, 
A highway torn and bruised, and red, 
Through which the frightened soul had fled. 
And Miriam's sleep is counterpart; 
Her wound, 'tis likewise of the heart, 
Though stain nor scar obscures the snow 
To tell of death and wreck below. 
Ah, sharper than the flashing steel, 
The weapon which the erring feel, 
Whose life has been a record clear, 
When sin first strikes like barbed spear. 

" Scathless and pure in every thought, 
By no temptation crossed or sought, 
The maid had lived ; child of a race 
Whose blood had caught from earth no trace, 
Through all the flow of gliding years, 
Except its purifying tears. 
Though fallible, to fall inclined, 
Like all that are of human kind, 



158 THE PLANET. 

Her soul possessed no power to know 
The unseen presence of the foe. 
Her bosom all unguarded lay, 
When sought the tempter for his prey, 
Clothed in the most seductive guise 
He ever wears to mortal eyes. 
Her heart no armor wore — a flower 
Whose life had been a morning's hour 

Of sunshine and sweet summer's breath : 
To which the fury and the power 

Of mid-day's tempests, bearing death 
And havoc in their fiery course, 
Were all unfelt, until the force 
Of love, strongest of passions when 
'Tis pure, though little seeming then 
The torrent it becomes when sin 
Has thrown its maddening portion in, 
Struck it; when from its fastenings torn, 
To be a broken relic borne 
Upon the swollen, pitiless tide, 

It did what rrtercy has decreed 

In every case of greatest need, 
Since hearts have loved and sinned — it died. 

" Died ? Yes : they call the passage death — 
That strange extinguishment of breath, 
By which the soul, itself unstained, 
When to some vice-touched object chained, 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 159 

Holding the essence of decay, 
And doomed to fade and pass away, 
In dissolution is set free 
To rise by its own purity. 

" So young and beautiful to die : 
O wondrous mystery of God's gifts ; 

The loved ones faded from the eye 
Like paling stars, when morning lifts 

Night's curtain from the azure sky. 

Like stars, O dwell they not in light 

Again to greet our loving sight? 

They are not dead ; I've heard them oft 

When prayer has borne my soul aloft, 

Their voices come distinct and low, 

Breaking upon the soul, as flow 

The sounds we hear in idle hours 

Whispered by leaves in shady bowers. 

But hold ! what vision do I see ? 

Enchantment sweet ! O, can it be ? 

It is ; 'tis they ! even to these eyes 

The mystery breaks, the shadows rise. 

My sight grows strong to pierce the shroud ; 

They smile, half-veiled behind the cloud ; 

Their countenances beam; their hands 

Are waving joyfulest commands ; 

They bid me come : I must aw^ay ; 

! I can here no longer stav. 



160 THE PLANET. 

The loved and lost have gone before ; 
We follow to the other shore ; 
I catch the lights, the sounds of home ; 
Wait, children ; wait ! I come, I come." 

Calmly upon his quiet breast 

The old man's head has sunk to rest. 

He. sleeps — sleeps in that perfect peace, 

In which all mortal troubles cease. 

46 Hence from this spot; we must away;" 

I heard my guide in whisper say. 

" Death makes it sacred ; " and round mine 

I felt the Spirit's fingers twine, 

As out into void space once more ; 

Out from the touch of earthly shore ; 

Out where all sense of sight or sound 

Is in the gulf of silence drowned, 

We moved — moved on like things of air, 

I knew not how and dreamt not where ; 

Conscious alone of motion swift, 

As if all objects were adrift, 

Till e'en such consciousness o'ercome, 

Left every feeling stilled and numb. 

The morn was passing into day 
When memory returned. I lay 
Amid familiar scenes. The hills 
Wore a lono; wonted look. The rills 



VIRTUE'S SACRIFICE. 161 

Sang songs whose oft-repeated tone 

Like voices of old friends had grown. 

The trees were those beneath whose shade 

In boyhood's hours my feet had strayed, 

And every object seen from birth 

Told I was back again to earth. 

I looked to heaven — the stars were there, 

Fast fading in the morning air. 

I sought that favorite one, upon 

Whose light I'd gazed so oft — 'twas gone ; 

But evermore its treasured ray 

Shall in my grateful bosom stay. 

11 



THE END. 



